Halo 3 ODST 2 PART II
by AgentQV
Summary: After the fall of the UNSC SAY-MY-NAME, the UNSC is working to leave the ARK before the flood can take over everything. But with Two Mischievous Artificial Intelligence Units, A Minor Prophet, and members of the UNSC itself, that tactic itself will be very difficult. Continues the story of the "Rookie" Lance Corporal James Dante, and features the cast from Halo 3 ODST 2 PART I.
1. Chapter 1

(Hello, good to see everybody, this is the first chapter of my fanfiction which is the sequel to part 1, if you didn't read that, you should probably do so, or you will be lost. I know the first ten or so chapters is just mindless cringe worthy comedy, but it'll be necessary if you want to know what's going on, anyways I hope you enjoy this.)

PROLOGUE

VERONICA DARE

UNSC SAY-MY-NAME

30 MINUTES BEFORE CRASH

Dare stroked on the keypad, for the last couple of hours all communication had stopped between forward unto dawn and the Say-My-Name. It was an ONI directive they got, but there was also problems going on. They were all told from their hard work, the war would end… but it didn't matter to them anymore.

Some sort of 'virus' infected the ship and jettisoned all of the escape pods. But that was the tip of the iceberg; it then started using the ship's COMs and satellite imagery to start looking for something, areas on the ARK. Commander Cox, the one in charge of the vessel, ordered all information to be deleted VIA Cole protocol, but that virus still managed to get a large amount of data and send it over to wherever it was on the ARK. Like the data over troop placements, including Dare's ODST squad.

It first started with a radio frequency, Cox immediately ordered to stop all communications with the Dawn so they could look into this signal. But that turned out to be the virus, and then all so quickly the ship was put in the sorry state it was in, it routinely shook from blasts of Covenant plasma.

Dare made sure that Romeo was given her previous assignment. She quickly tapped images on her display; she heard beeping from the nearby medical center… Ever since the virus came, it caused havoc in med-bay… But why? Veronica sighed and kept typing on the data pad, she looked down to see the massive fight going down on the ARK. She was busy trying to hack into the virus and stop it from its takeover of the ship, she couldn't so she did the next best thing, figure out why it was here. Commander Cox spoke on the speakers.

"We have a hull breach in sector 7, I repeat, hull breach in sector 7." Dare slammed her fist on the desk, the Covenant were attacking, and they were like sitting ducks. Suddenly the ship shook coarsely.

"Agh!" Veronica yelled falling out of her seat. She looked out to see some kind of… pod? From it walked out some covenant grunts, the Unggoy. Dare groaned and got behind her desk, she got on her COM headset.

"Captain Cox, the covenant has boarded." She whispered quietly.

"They haven't seen me yet… permission to enga-"The ship shook again, the Unggoy fell to the side from the sudden shift of gravity. Dare used this chance and immediately pulled out her pistol and fired into one, it fell to the ground dead. The other one took one look at her and started running down the hallway. She breathed and putted in another clip.

"Yes, Dare, we're not giving up this ship, not to Covenant, not to a damn computer." His cold voice said over the COM. She recalled reading his file once, he was an ONI agent through and through… lots of black ink though.

"Affirmative." She could hear the speakers start.

"All crew and personnel, prepare to engage." He ordered. Dare pulled a couple loose strands of hair back. The ship needed to stay afloat, or else the Dawn would have no backup. She quickly went to a nearby combat locker and pulled out a MA5B assault rifle, as well as a combat vest. She putted the vest on and loaded the rifle. The personnel in the room that were still alive did the same. She quickly putted a helmet on and then headed through the hallway.

_Why would they enter the ship? Is it because of the ARK?_

Dare put the thought away and returned to the matter at hand, she hurried into the next room and saw two jackals, a grunt, and two Covenant Brutes. She putted the silencer on her pistol and fired at the grunt and then jackal, scoring two headshots. The two fell to the ground, and the aliens turned to their fallen. Dare immediately got behind cover holding the pistol closely, it fell somewhat sweaty. She quickly got to the Brute and released a burst of fire into it, the beast fell to the ground, flesh ripped through. At the same moment Dare picked up its spike grenade and stuck its friend. She rolled out of the way and saw it go off. The brute fell to the ground leaving the Jackal remaining. The thing seemed somewhat… petrified. She loaded her pistol rushing towards it, the thing immediately raised its shield. She stopped at the moment. The thing was about to fire it's plasma pistol when suddenly it fell to the ground from a well-placed pistol shot. She looked to see who it was,

"Thought you needed help, Captain Dare." Cox's voice deep voice said. She looked at him.

"Good you could make it, sir." She said. Cox nodded, he was roughly 6.6 with dull brown hair and blue eyes. Luke Cox was of the same rank of Miranda Keyes. She could recall them bickering when they went through the slipspace portal. He sighed.

"Damn ship has gone to hell, I made sure to assist all marine forces onboard, but as you can see." He said looking at a map where part of it was blacked out.

"We couldn't do much, we lost engineering." He said. Dare nodded.

"It's not your fault sir." Dare said. Cox sighed.

"And yet here I am." The man said looking around the room. He was rather a… philosopher, in her opinion, always focusing on morals. He looked at Dare slightly.

"I'm sorry you couldn't be dropped in with your team." He said. Veronica looked down.

"I know…" she had wanted to go with Eddy Buck and his ODSTs, but she had been ordered to remain on board the ship and direct them… And if the ship was going down… she would never see them again. Cox sighed and then gripped his pistol.

"Come on, we should-" The ship shook madly. Veronica grabbed for the railing and caught it. More of the personnel onboard were busy. Cox sighed.

"We should head to the bridge."

5 minutes later

Luke Cox, Veronica Dare, and the other marines they acquired approached the bridge of the SAY-MY-NAME; parts of it were literally on fire. Suddenly the top screen of the NAV computer started booting up. Dare looked at it.

"What?"

"I'm sorry… reclaimers." It spoke; it was using a very old dialect of English. This must have been the virus… or whatever it was. Dare could see the front of the ship was facing towards the ARK.

"Why are you doing this?" Dare asked. This thing obviously wasn't Covenant. The 'virus' groaned.

"I had been waiting far too long for this moment, and since those fools would rather destroy this vessel outright… I have no choice." It said. Suddenly the ship started moving. Dare immediately held onto the railing. One of the personnel who remained on the bridge looked at Commander Cox.

"Sir, we're going to crash into the ark!" he yelled. Cox sighed.

"How much time?"

"… 40 seconds until impact and dropping." The engineer said. Cox looked at all of them; he wiped his head for a moment. The others watched him closely.

"Damn... All of you, I am proud to serve with you today, the war is over… and this… this turn of events… I'd like to say I'm sorry… but my last order before this ship crashes will be to do your best to brace yourselves…" He said, the man nodded, not loosing any buit of conviction in his face, he and the others left the room. It rumbled from the coming impact The virus did not answer back. Because it knew it would get away with this, even if enough of the ship survived… The personnel on the dawn would never know. The ship was starting to burn.

Dare stepped back. This was it, the ship was going to crash… kinda ironic when you think of it, the war was going to end, and they were going to die at someone else's hand besides from the Covenant. Dare slowly walked to a nearby message relay. She dialed a message out to a specific team, not caring the message wouldn't send… but just wanted to leave a last message.

"Please record message."

Halo 3 ODST 2

PART II

JAMES DANTE THE "ROOKIE"

AT NEW MISSION PLACEMENT BY UNKNOWN THIRD PARTY

CITADEL UNDERGROUND

It was deep underground from the citadel, the battle above took a lot out of the trooper staring at the screen, preferably, he would of wanted to take a nice rest, but instead he had chosen to go against his better instinct and go underground and search for missing troopers, he felt the need to scratch his head, but he was wearing a helmet. The terminal in front of him was a huge blue screen with a dark circle in the middle, it spoke.

"My name… Alcatraz, you may have heard of me." It said, using a dated English dialect. The soldier shook his head.

"Er, no… I just came down here looking for something." He said. The eye shifted for a moment and then responded.

"It does not matter, what you are looking for… but that you are here, reclaimer." It answered back. The soldier sighed and shook his head.

"I don't know what you're talking about, I was sent here to find the missing prisoners from Johnson's team." HE said. The computer didn't ask him who Johnson was, but immediately played a recording.

"What? Can't start your own party?" A familiar voice answered back, that was Avery Johnson alright, and this AI knew a lot.

The soldier immediately looked at him.

"How did you-?"

"I see many things… reclaimer." It said. The soldier sighed, and then nodded.

"Alright… Alcatraz, my name it James Dante, why do you think I'm here?" he asked. The eye looked at him, like he was a child asking silly obvious questions. James stared at the machine. It finally continued.

"You are here… because fate has brought you here." IT spoke cryptically; James looked at it and then sighed.

_Never expect that from an AI_

"I now know why fate did this to us… I have been trapped here, by my makers… the ARK was my domain, then it was ripped from me… I need you to help me take it back." It simply said. James stared at it.

"Wha… why me?" The AI stared at him.

"Because the data said so." James looked around the room, there wasn't a way out, and he then sighed.

"I have finished scanning your equipment; it is compatible, with my software…"

"And you want me to be your… courier." James said sighing. The machine slowly answered back.

"Yes…"

"Why do you think I'd do that?" He asked. He did not have time to lug some AI around town.

"Because, when I lost control of this installation, I was imprisoned here, but, I do have full control of this room… and surveillance." It spoke. James stared at it.

"So you're gonna keep me in here until I die?" he asked. The machine laughed.

"It would be most unfortunate for those soldiers…" James shook his head.

"No, you've got a deal." Alcatraz acknowledged, then immediately out of the terminal slipped out a card.

"Take the card and put it into your suit interface, I will keep a fragment of myself here… for security reasons." James stared at it for the moment then sighed.

_I guess two minds are always better than one_

He plucked the card and slid it into the back of his helmet, he felt a sort of jolt.

"Hm… not much power to work with, there should be engineers nearby." It said. The door opened.

"If this is going to work out, approach the engineers." Alcatraz ordered. James slowly walked through the door. He knew engineers well enough, they were biological super computers. James sighed and slowly walked to the through the room, all the lights were on, and there was no flood here… although there was some human blood, and a pile of scrap.

_Foxtrot must have been through here…and that meant Covenant as well_

The room was a straight forward grey hallway; he stepped forward and saw a small group of roughly… six engineers, they floated in the air. Alcatraz immediately got on James's speaker. He spoke some form of gibberish and then suddenly the aliens swarmed James, he shook.

"Do not be alarmed, they will 'modify'." Alcatraz said. James felt the back piece of his armor removed, but then re-attached. The back was wear the HUD's battery was, they must of strengthen it. Jsmes saw one of them remove his helmet and then placed it back on his head. It felt the same; however… different, new icons were on his HUD and such. They engineers finished and scrambled away, James looked at his gear. The original fingerless gauntlets he originally had were replaced with nearby scrap and fabric to be fully gloved gauntlets. He had a strange meter at the top of his HUD.

"As I said before, I looked through files. As an "orbital drop shock trooper", you lacked the standard kit to reclaim me, I was expecting Sierra 117 to come through, but you will do just as well and so I had the engineers take the liberty with your armor. The same basic design is the same; however they had been upgraded with an extended rechargeable battery, and a shielding unit, though incomplete, perhaps we'll find an upgrade along the way to increase the strength… a motion tracker with the range of… twenty meters and…" Alcatraz said. James sighed.

"So, you basically made me the next best thing from a Spartan?" he asked.

"…Basically." Alcatraz answered. James sighed and slowly walked away from the engineers.

"Why are there engineers here?" he asked. Alcatraz then answered.

"When the flood was gone, they were brought here from the facility that housed all life… They've been here a long time, but their orders remained virtually the same, remain underground. I had tried many times to change their… minds, but they wouldn't… and so I could not use them." Alcatraz's cold voice seemed to take a lower tone. James sighed. So this AI was in charge of the ARK, then another AI took over? Strange. James looked towards the blood in the room, around were two other doors, besides the one James came in through, it gave him a slight feeling of containment.

"What's with the blood?"

"Soldiers, the ones you might be familiar with, they overloaded my system to get through the door… I ask that you kill them… built up a ruckus around here." He simply said. James slowly tapped the side of his helmet. He walked through the hallway and noticed that the door was open, although slightly broken. Sparks were shimmering out of it as the left side tried to close, while the right side was torn in some direction, Seems the work of hunters. James slowly walked through the door, clutching his rifle. He heard talking on the other side.

"The hierarchs are dead, the fleet is in turmoil, we must remain here." A deep Brute voice said. James saw that it was a wall on the other side which went both ways. The marine clung to the side and quickly moved in the way of the blood prints, the right side. From there was a wall that went right and led to a brute talking to another.

"From the files… they are called, Brutes… I can heighten your response since I have access to the cameras built into your helmet… be careful to engage." It said. Did that mean Alcatraz has also cut him off from the Dawn? He sighed and finally crossed the corner. He immediately fired his assault rifle towards the alien, getting through the thing's shields and bringing it down. The other one immediately charged towards him, almost immediately James (with crazy dexterity), jumped to the right, and then plunged a knife into the brute's ankle. The beast fell to the ground.

"I… how did I do that?' He asked. Alcatraz immediately answered.

"You didn't… I increased your reaction time appropriately, consider me a… neural interface, you have learned new predator techniques… for, interrogation." He said. Rookie looked down at the brute, trying to get away from him.

"You mean… ok…" he said, he immediately approached the brute, he was crawling on his belly, the knife was deep in his leg. James stepped on it, making the knife go deeper.

"AGH!" the ape yelled. James smiled.

"Good… now you're going to tell me everything you know about the human prisoners." He said. The brute breathed in.

"And if I do not?" James stepped harder on the knife. It yelled loudly.

"Fine… seven prisoners… one wounded… we were going to have them start the journey… then you devils crashed your ship!" He said. James smiled.

"Thank you… any traps?" he asked. The brute shook from the pain.

"No… NO." HE said. Dante nodded.

"Alright… how many of you are there?" he asked. The brute stared at him.

"I will never tell you… runt." He yelled, teeth clenched. James nodded.

"Good choice… pig." He immediately pulled the knife out and stabbed into the things throat, blood oozed from both cuts, and after ten seconds, the thing bled out, choking on its own blood. Dante pulled the knife out from its throat. He

"I'm impressed, Lance Corporal Dante." Alcatraz said. James almost forgot he was there.

"Thanks… I was… vicious." James said sighing. He put the knife away, and looked at his hands, they had a sort of metallic sheen.

"All in the new techniques I taught you… remember what the thing has probably done to your kind." It said. James slowly nodded, and looked down on the corpse.

"Yeah… your right."

APPROXAMITELY 30 MINUTES AFTER SQUAD DEPARTURE TO FORWARD-UNTO-DAWN

EDDY BUCK

Alright, you guys are clean, get going." The matinence officer said. Eddy Buck, Michael Crespo, Kojo Agu, Taylor Miles, and Quentin Victor walked out of the decontamination area. Usually it wasn't used unless they were exposed to a deadly chemical, but it was worse… the flood. Buck sighed walking through lines of marines, He had a wound in his side, while on the way on the pelican, Romeo patched up the injury, well sort of, a bandage filled with bio-foam would hold him together for now, but he could get it looked at later, he needed to check something. He turned to the other marines.

"Hey, pay attention to any coming inbound Pelicans, I need to check up on something." He said slipping off a helmet with a very cracked visor, the one that belonged the James Dante, Victor nodded.

"Alright sir." He said. He was about Dutch's age, the sniper they used when Romeo was out of commission. Buck quickly went through the ship and approached the bridge. The commander Miranda Keyes was announced dead, so there was no-one to lead the ship; however the crew was still in. He approached the woman working at the COMs ARRAY.

"Hello, I'm Eddy Buck, we just got out of the ARK… have you had any transmission with the SAY-MY-NAME?" he asked rushing. The woman looked at him. She sighed and slowly shook her head.

"I'm sorry sir, all contact was lost a couple hours ago, all ships we had sent had been destroyed." She said. Eddy sighed, slightly slamming his fist on a nearby machine. The woman sighed.

"Did you have something valuable aboard the ship? If so, I believe the UNSC would gladly add more to your pay to cover damages." She said. Buck sighed. He looked out the window towards the SAY-MY-NAME

"No, it's alright… I just… oh my god." He saw the ship going towards the ARK in a sort of freefall. The woman looked at it and quickly spoke up on the PA system.

"All personnel, the UNSC Say-My-Name is crashing onto the surface of the ARK!" she yelled. The people on the bridge immediately freaked out, that ship was literally half of the UNSC's forces. It crashed to the ground and was followed by a sort of explosion. Buck couldn't believe it. Debris flooded the screen.

_Veronica… god damn it_

He tried to keep his cool, but couldn't find it… he slowly breathed in and swallowed. The action aboard the bridge was in turmoil.

"Commander Cox, do you read me?" The woman said trying to communicate with it, no answer. Buck's breathe heaved and he walked out of the bridge towards where the troopers were staying. Mickey looked at him.

"I'm sorry… gunny." He said. Eddy shook his head.

"We don't know what happened yet… she could still be alright…" he said. There was little faith among them. Mickey slowly nodded.

"So… anything else happen?" Buck asked. Mickey nodded.

"Yes sir… Faire's alive; Sargent Johnson just communicated with the ship about it." HE said. Buck sighed; he forgot to ask about that. Anne Faire was the squad's newest member; she had a close relationship with James Dante, the Rookie. He had almost lost faith that they would make it… Well half of them anyways.

"What about Dante?" he asked. Dutch shook his head.

"Johnson said he opted to remain on the ground looking for the lost Foxtrot forces… we lost his signal." He said. Buck sighed.

"Alright, hopefully he's deep underground… otherwise…" he didn't finish that sentence. Mickey nodded looking down.

"He'll find a way sir… I know it." He said. Buck then asked.

"What about the Chief?" he asked. Romeo looked out the window; they could see the covenant ship high charity in the ARK, as well as the strange new halo ring coming out of the ARK.

"He's coming to tell the board his plan, a way to stop the flood here." He said. Buck nodded.

"Alright…" He said. The group walked to the hanger, and saw a pelican land. Outside of it came Sargent Johnson walking out with Anne Faire following behind, she looked like she's seen quite a bit, her red hair fell out of her traditional ponytail, her right hand, while missing a gauntlet looked burnt and damaged. Mickey looked to Eddy, he sighed.

"Go down there and see if you can help." He said. Mickey and Faire were good friends. HE nodded quickly headed down towards her; he talked with Johnson for a moment. Then Mickey turned to Faire, he tried talking to her, she seemed angry, and it seemed he didn't get the hint and then she started to yell.

"Get the fuck away from me Mickey!" Buck immediately headed down.

"Woah, calm down Marine!" He yelled. Faire stared at him, and slowly looked down. Johnson looked to her.

"I'll talk with the medics; have them take a look at you." He said, she nodded slightly. Johnson turned to him.

"She's been through a lot, be gentle…" He said. Buck saluted. Johnson then handed him something.

"Give this to her, when she's better… it's from Dante…" He said. Buck slowly took the strange box; it had an old wood sort of feel.

(Bet you thought I wouldn't forget about that)

_I can look at it later_

He put the box in his pocket; Johnson hurried away, talking with an officer on what just happened. Buck looked at the red headed girl, she seemed to be in some sort of depression, and maybe just anger… she had been high-strong before. Or maybe it's just the intense pain in her right hand.

"Anne... What happened?" he asked. She looked down, trying to find the words.

"…I don't know." She simply said, walking away. Buck sighed, she was in a terrible state, and lashing out at Mickey over nothing… must have been bad. Romeo sighed.

"She seems in a good mood." Buck nodded.

"She's gonna have to have a fully psychiatric build up." He said. Dutch sighed.

"I'll keep an eye on her." He said. Taylor 'Dutch' Miles was the big brother of the team that was expected of him.

Romeo looked to Buck.

"I'll go through the COM traffic between her and Rookie." He said, Buck nodded. Kojo 'Romeo' Agu had been known to be rather uncaring, but he knew they needed to help her. He turned away and walked towards the COM station. . Mickey swallowed looking at his captain.

"Any orders for me?" he asked. Buck slowly put his hand on the private's shoulder.

"Find something to keep yourself occupied, I'll message you all when it's time." He said. Michael nodded.

"I hope Rookie's okay…" he said. James was his best friend, the two had went to the same academy on Luna, they even signed up on the same day, and now, seeing as he now had gone missing and Faire in the state she was in… Mickey would probably go into a type of depression. Buck nodded.

"I know he is… I can feel it."

(Alright, I can safely say I'm back, it has been a long while with setbacks after setbacks, but I have basically written the first half of this Fanfiction which I will try to release on a weekly basis. I wrote this at the beginning of the summer and I can already see some problems with personalities of one of the characters compared to right now, also I have an issue of dating things, so I might edit that a bit. I hope you enjoy this first chapter, and please tell me what you think.)


	2. Chapter 2

THE ROOKIE

CITADEL UNDERGROUND

30 MINUTES AFTER MISSION PLACEMENT

James looked at the dead brute, its mouth was open, and blood was dripping out.

"Bastard…" He loaded a clip into the assault rifle Johnson gave him before he went underground, the ammo counter read 32. Thinking about the rifle brought him back to the last time he saw Anne Faire. He sighed to himself… He missed her.

"Well what are you waiting for?" Alcatraz asked from inside his suit. James tapped his helmet and approached the door. The brute that was dead on the floor had informed him that Covenant was in the following room. He held the rifle close and then the door opened, immediately James took a look around the room, it was a large area, perhaps a sort of storm bunker, intricate designs littered the walls. The occupants were roughly ten grunts, 4 brutes, and 2 hunters. James gulped; luckily they hadn't seen him yet. He heard speech on the other end.

"Go check the prisoners…" One of the brutes ordered, he wore golden armor, obviously the one in charge. A brute in blue armor accepted the order and left through a room, leaving 3 behind. James looked at the grunts and instinctively pulled for his pistol, only it find he lost it while topside. Alcatraz spoke.

"Shouldn't be too difficult, kill the hunters, or the brutes, it'll cause a shake up with the grunts." James sighed.

"How do you know that terminology anyways?" he asked. Alcatraz neatly replied.

"That too was in the data, modern names for them… and saying Jiralhanae is a mouthful." He said. James seemed puzzled by Alcatraz's mannerisms, he almost seemed… human, maybe he was rampant, it's weird, one moment he's all cryptic, and then later he's making short quips. Nobody has been on the ARK for centuries… James dismissed the thought and then plucked a spike grenade from his pack.

_Stick the hunter, and then proceed to the brutes_

James quickly got behind cover and threw the spike grenade into the melancholy orange of the hunter, it reacted by wiggling around but before it could do anything the grenade detonated piercing the covenant monster everywhere, first it seemed unaffected, then James looked and saw it's huge arm fall off, then the fuel rod gun, finally the beast fell to the ground. Meanwhile around it the Unggoy were in frenzy and the brutes struggled to control them. The other hunter immediately looked at its dead comrade and then started firing it's fuel rod cannon in order to force James out. HE saw hot plasma spew around the room in his direction, his new shields flared up to protect him. James immediately rose up and fired towards the thing, randomly seeing him it tried to redirect it's plasma towards him and so wild plasma shot through the air. James leaped to the side of the cover and immediately tossed a frag grenade towards the grunts. The explosive went off and killed three of them while wounding two others. The brutes were in a rampage and quickly ran towards his direction and jumped over his cover. One was on both of his sides, the two gorilla-like aliens immediately rushed towards Rookie. James quickly got to the ground and kicked away with… more force than usual, he slid away from them and they ran into each other, James took this moment to cook off a plasma grenade and toss it at the dazed brutes. He saw a satisfying blue fire erupt and he quickly got up, the hunter was rushing towards him he immediately fired on it but the thing bested him and hit him hard in the chest with its large shield.

"Agh…" He fell back with enormous speed. He only stopped when he hit the wall, he felt tremendous pain in his back. James looked at his shields; they were 3/4s through. He tried to move but the pain was still there. The hunter was running towards him to finish the job. He slowly got up and then noticed a vital point on its fuel rod cannon, which was connected by a short stubby cord. He immediately pulled out his knife and side stepped the hunter barely then slashed the cord as if he were slashing tires. The hunter seemed disappointed in its failure and tried to get him again. James jumped back the moment before and then ran like a pussy away from the thing, he saw something dripping from the cord. The hunter took the incentive to charge it's fuel-rod cannon, it didn't charge however, the thing fired anyways and was enveloped in green flames and fell to the ground immediately. The remaining brute and grunts saw it burst into flames but lost View of James as he crouched behind some sort of Covenant Canister. He felt that pain in his stomach reverberate, he must of broken a rib or something. James quickly fired on the remaining grunts, they fell in an orderly fashion, the remaining brute stared at him about to shoot, but strangely… didn't.

"You may have bested them… but you will not get the chance with me." He said, he was the brute from before that gave that order. His golden armor was pale in the light, he stepped towards James, he strangely as well didn't shoot. They met each other face to face… well actually face to shoulder because the brute was so much taller. The alien immediately kicked towards him, James immediately avoided it, and then caught the brute's arm. And then at that moment… snapped it. The thing yelled and tried with it's other arm. James quickly broke the other one and then pushed it to the ground. Where did he get this strength? Was it the suit? The brute lied face flat on the floor, it tried to kneel up but couldn't. James sighed.

"How much more Covenant is down here?" he asked. The thing slowly laughed.

"Does it matter… human? We will all walk the journey…" he said. James sighed and immediately fired a round into the things leg; its shields were already down. He took note of the crimson crimson blood erupting from its leg.

"AGH!" he yelled.

"I meant specifics… I know about that remaining brute seeing the prisoners… but there's got to be more of you." He said. The brute shook its head.

"I… no… no more remain…" It said. Alcatraz spoke to James.

"He's not lying… continue."

"Then where are they?" James asked. Despite the broken rib, he had to put on a show for this thing.

"Forces… scattered. All over the ARK… you demon…" It said… that was new. Usually he was called a nymph. James slowly focused his rifle to the things head.

"You've been really helpful… so I'll do you a favor." He said. The brute looked at him. Shaking, James then heard a click in something the brute was holding, James jumped to the side, to avoid the blast from the spike grenade. At that moment his shields were done and he was knelt down on the floor, the brute was dead, it's armor scattered from the blast. James looked at his assault rifle and released a couple shots into the monster, absolutely nothing happened. Alcatraz stopped him. James sighed, getting back on track.

"Alright, I think that's enough for interrogation, it sounds like the Covenant might prepare for a counter attack." He said.

"That's not my problem." Alcatraz answered. He was about to continue when Rookie spoke up.

"I know, take back your facility or something…" He said.

"Yes…" James slowly approached the door and looked at his ammo counter, he had roughly 18 rounds left. He looked to the brute he had just slayed and took its plasma rifle. Thing wouldn't need it anymore, he then noticed a small card in its pocket, not blown away from the blast.

_Intel… might be useful_

He plucked the card out and then putted it in his pocket. HE put the assault rifle on his back and held the plasma rifle in both hands. He then approached the door and it opened. On the other side was the remaining brute and the prisoners. James immediately fired from the plasma rifle. He broke through its shields and shot until the alien collapsed to the ground, splattered with blue blood. He saw the prisoners from Foxtrot were in holo-cages. They looked to him. He saw the looks ont heir faces, some seemed confused, others, depressed. He sighed.

"I'm gonna get you out of here… All of you." Nearby was a terminal, he stepped to it for a moment, pulling out the card he took from the dead brute's body, there was a slot in the terminal, he slid it in. it beeped in a form of approval. On the front was a touch screen, James was about to tap it.

"Hold it, not your domain… I'll take a look." Alcatraz said. James retreated, stepping towards the cages, they started to turn off, one by one.

There were about seven men, three of them wounded. It looked like plasma burns on one, a broken leg on the other, and a puncture on the last.

_The brute from before said only one was wounded… _

The leader of the group looked at him. He seemed to recognize James.

"Dante… that's you isn't it?" He asked. James took off the helmet. The marine nodded.

"Strange new digs… but thanks." He said. The room had a sort of reflective glass everywhere, James noticed how his eyes looked rather drained, and their light blue color had gone dull. His hair was a mess as well, but it didn't matter. He looked to the Marine, clutching his… well Buck's helmet.

"Johnson had me come here, I found a way out." He said. He went into his pack and pulled out some bio-foam and anti-biotics, he handed them to the medic of the marines who quickly tended to the wounded. The leader of the group, a corporal Baker immediately looked to him.

"Dante, what's been happening on the surface?" James sighed.

"War's over, Truth's dead… but the SAY-MY-NAME crashed, right outside the citadel, I got in just as it happened…" He said. The marines looked down, must have had friends on the SMN. He looked to them, then back to Baker.

"I can lead you outside, it should be safe."

FAIRE

1 HOUR AND 30 MINUTES AFTER MISSION END

MED-BAY OF UNSC FORWARD UNTO DAWN

Anne Faire sat there on the cot, she sighed to herself. Maybe it wasn't a good idea to lash out at Mickey… But what could she do? Laugh like the pain was bottled up inside and eat at her every day? She sighed as the medic checked a few things off her, she had sustained mild radiation(should have been more considering that nuke) and her right arm was badly burnt, they could either sign her off of duty and let it heal within a couple months, or let her serve and use a fucking robot arm until they could clone a new one. She had chosen the latter because she needed to return to the ARK, she needed closure… or something. Her parents died on Reach, old squad from before was mostly dead… somehow she felt like she died a long time ago and just didn't embrace it. James practically saved her… giving her something else to fight for… but then he had to go out and be a fucking hero. A monument to her life, death. The medic signed more on his clip board and then nodded.

"Alright, I'll prepare the equipment, should take a couple minutes, we'll knock you out for the surgery and wake you when it's done… while I'm gone you have a couple friends that want to be here for you." He said and walked out of the room. Immediately followed were two familiar faces, Michael Crespo and Taylor 'Dutch' Miles. Dutch sat in a nearby visitor chair trying to look happy, while Mickey entered her room. He sighed.

"I bet I'm the last person you want to see, but… no hard feelings." He said. Faire forces a smile and then nodded.

"Gunny told me to give you something; he said he got it from Johnson who got it from Roo-… James." Mickey said handing Faire what looked to be some sort of wooden box. She looked at it.

"James… during the mission, he'd keep looking at this…" Anne said. Mickey nodded.

"Frequently, sometimes he'd just sit in bed looking at it… but never opened it." He said, and then scratched his head. Anne looked at him for a moment.

…_Weird_

"I actually never figured out what it was." He said. Anne stared at it then realized that if James knew he was going to die and this was the last thing she got from him… it must have been really important. She slowly opened the box; Mickey immediately sat down next to her to take a look at the contents. She set it on her lap and with her left hand pulled out a small silver ring… Mickey seemed to recognize it.

"That was… his mom's ring… she wore it in his old photos of her." He said. Faire stared at it, it was very beautiful, no doubt about it. A simple peace of silver melded to the form of a ring. She stared at it. She breathed slowly and examined it more, no other information was pressed onto it, and this was it. Mickey looked at her.

"You think James…-" The medic headed into the room.

"Alright, we're ready to start procedure, I'm sorry private but you need to go." He said hushing Mickey away, he seemed disappointed hearing them quote his rank, he slowly obliged and was about to leave when Faire handed the box with the ring to him.

"Get it to me after the surgery." She said. She stopped trying to think of it and then looked at the metal arm the doctor brought in, it was fit to her specifications, and she looked at her right arm slowly. A tingling sensation immediately took hold of her.

"Goodbye…" she said to it. She lay down on the cot and felt a needle insert into her neck, she let the drugs do their work and quickly fell into a nice sleep. The last thing she saw at that moment was a heartbeat monitor.

MICKEY

IMMEDIATELY

Michael Crespo sat down beside Dutch, on the bench outside of med bay. They seemed to be preparing for the surgery. The room was tinted with a dark grey, the lights seemed dimmer. Or maybe that's what Mickey that he was seeing. The box was clasped in his hands. A peculiar wooden box containing a simple ornate ring. Dutch looked to him puzzled, then towards the box.

"What's that?" He asked. Mickey looked up from the box towards Dutch. He sighed.

"Something from Rookie, it was for Faire, a ring from his mom… I think." HE said. Dutch nodded. Offering his hand, Mickey placed the box in, Dutch slowly opened it for a moment to look. The light shone on the ring for a moment before it settled.

"I see… they were very close." Dutch said. Mickey nodded.

"Yeah…" Dutch slowly handed the box back to Mickey, who held it in the same position it had been before. Mickey's eyes trailed off towards the surgery then back to Dutch.

"You think he's still alive?" Dutch didn't respond for a moment, and then turned his head.

"I dunno… I hope so; kid had a crazy idea that got us out of trouble." Dutch said leaning back. They could see the doctors were rubbing the cutting point of Anne's right arm with some sort of oil. Mickey breathed slightly, Gripping his own arm. Dutch sighed.

"Relax, it isn't like those holo-films on waypoint, these are professionals, not your standard Martian laser massacre." Mickey nodded at that last bit.

"I think he wanted to marry her…" Mickey said out of the blue. Dutch chuckled slightly, but then turned his head to see Mickey was serious.

"I suppose he would too… just known her for a week and bam… it was even shorter for me and Gretchen." He said. Mickey looked towards his friend, and then slowly raised an eyebrow.

"You've never really told me about Gretchen." He said. Dutch sighed.

"She was one of us… a hell jumper… we met, had a spark… then the first leave we had, I took her out… next month got married… We were really happy… real romantic stuff…" Mickey nodded, Dutch was looking away.

"Then what?" Dutch groaned.

"Then… those damn innies… blew her leg off… Shook her pretty bad… needed treatment." He said. Mickey looked at his friend, Dutch was looking down.

"I couldn't be at her side during the surgery because I was needed … I hear she's doing better…but we've been out of contact for so long… I don't know." He said. Mickey slowly patted him on the back.

"Hey man… it's alright; I bet she's just fine." He said. Dutch nodded.

"And now seeing Rookie when we did… make me think of myself… couldn't be there when she needed me… I can only imagine what's going through him right now." He said. Mickey sighed. He looked at the surgery, They used a red laser to quickly cut through the arm while cauterizing it, then they attached some sort of metallic cover. It was like something from an old science fiction movie. The arm was removed and they were attaching the new one to the cylinder. Mickey tried to look away.

_Dutch… he'll see her again, I know it_

"Even if Rookie's not there for her… we need to be." He said. Dutch looked at him, and then nodded.

"Even when she begs for us to leave."

BUCK

2 HOURS AFTER MISSION END

Eddy Buck stood on the bridge of the UNSC Forward Unto Dawn. People were bussily working, trying to re-establish communications with the Say-My-Name, getting nothing. Buck felt a slight pain in his side, he had recently gotten medical attention, just a bit of Bio-foam slapped to a bandage, but it was working… or maybe that was the morphine talking. Aboard the front of the bridge was the man in charge currently, Sargeant Avery Johnson. Other people were around the bridge.

"Glad you could make it, we were just having a sitrep with the chief." He said. Buck nodded and watched. They were in a holo-room used to communicate with soldiers on missions. It lighted up and the form of Master Chief John 117 appeared.

"Chief, good you can make it… now let's here this plan of yours, concerning the Halo ring. You already explained it to me; tell these others what it's about." Johnson said. The room consisted of personnel from the Dawn.

"Since the ring has just been created, we could try to disrupt it, by lighting it, it could activate, and damage itself, and the ARK."

HE explained. Buck nodded, the plan was solid, the rings were probably out of that lockdown phase and could probably start. But that created a problem.

"Eh… pardon me Master Chief, but what about our own personnel here? It would take at least a day to round up our forces from all over the ARK, not to mention the necessary fuel for a return trip." He said, both was true, most of the fuel they needed to return had been with the SAY-MY-NAME, and they would need a full effort to collect all marines. The chief slowly nodded.

"Then I'll work on retrieving Cortana and the activation index from High Charity, and then wait for Command to give me clearance." He said, his deep voice reverberating through the room. The chief must have had other intentions then to start HALO… or maybe it was because it was so close and unfinished that it could crash into the ARK. Either plan it worked out as long as they could get out of here before the fireworks started.

"Alright Sierra 117, you are clear to begin your mission, good luck sir." They said. the hologram ended. Buck sighed then looked at Johnson.

"Sir… are you sure about this?" he asked. The man had a look of undying determination in his eye.

"Damn right, anything else you need to talk about?" he asked. Buck then looked at him.

"Well, about your sniper… Victor, I have a feeling my squad is going to be sent down there, and so I was wondering if I could borro-" Johnson smiled.

"Keep him; he's always been fond of hell jumpers… not to mention I'm sure he'd love to get some more payback." He said. Buck saluted.

"I'll turn the papers in for his re-deployment; you just make sure he does a damn good job." He said. Buck nodded and Johnson left. They now had a plan, get off the ARK. He looked at the citadel down below; he could see the Say-My-Name crash site. The other members on board were trying to communicate, but got no response, he sighed.

_We won't leave them behind…_

The order had been clear, they would be sent back down to the surface to find survivors and assist other marines. The Elite ship Shadow of Intent was repaired however, and would also offer assistance to UNSC forces. Aegis Fate, another UNSC ship was with Shadow of Intent, however fuel for all ships in question was a major problem.

ROMEO

2 HOURS AFTER MISSION END

Kojo Agu stifled through COM chatter, he went to the frequency of Buck's old helmet, strangely ever since it entered the complex, they lost it's signature… This is strange, if Rookie was dead, they would still get a message. The Helmet Faire used was strapped into the computer, but her unit was disabled. He sighed and rose up; they could deal with this later. Hr slowly looked out the nearby window over the ARK. It was... enormous, ONI would have wet themselves to study here. He quickly logged out on the computer and took the helmet. He took a step away from the computer, feeling a slight twinge of pain from his leg. Victor looked at him.

"Find anything?" he asked. Romeo sighed. Ever since the mission, the two snipers had been hanging out, seeing as Victor had nothing to do. The man shook his head.

"Johnson's report said there was COM chatter between Faire and Dante, but it wasn't by helmet… atleast on Faire's end." He said. Victor nodded.

"What, maybe they used Johnson's COM unit, he's always lending it out." He said. Romeo sighed and then nodded.

"Maybe…" Victor looked towards him, his brown eyes seemed skeptical.

"Why's it important?" Kojo sighed.

"Might explain her… erratic behavior." He said. Victor nodded.

"We can take a look at that later… if given the chance." He tapped Victor on the shoulder.

"So how was the team without me?" he asked. Victor sighed.

"Copasetic" Romeo stared at him, Victor sighed.

"Fine, not much really happening, they knew you were going to be fine." He said. Romeo nodded.

"Great to know when I die, moral won't be low." He said sarcastically. Victor sighed.

"Hey, you could have a more positive outlook on life then the complaining." He said. Kojo rolled his eyes.

"Maybe… Remind me of Buck." They started walking through the nearby crowd of people, some men were itching to get back into the fight, they were lined up for equipment and empty assault rifles, the armory were already filled up with Marines. Even the PA system was telling certain fire teams to go to specific areas for lift off.

"**Alpha through Charlie, report." **

Romeo tried to ignore it, wasn't his business. Victor walked beside him.

"So how do you feel about Dante?" Romeo asked, Victor sighed.

"Seems he's all you guys talk about, Bucks a bit too supporting of him, but he's fine… and hearing he was sent to get my friends… I hope he's alright." He said. Romeo nodded. Victor was Johnson's soldier.

"Kid was antsy when we dropped into Mombasa… He's like that little brother that gets all the attention." Romeo said. Victor looked at him.

"Are you… jealous?" He asked. Romeo sighed.

"Hey, I broke my leg, twice, and got knifed in my lung, and nobody cried for me, and now all of a sudden Faire throws a tantrum because of her boyfriend and we're all treating her like a delicate little flower… and when she got here, she was an arrogant bitch… I'm just tired." He said. Victor breathed.

"Sorry the only thing you care about is who daddy loves best." Victor said. Kojo looked down; the older marine had a point.

"Yeah… whatever." They were walking through a hallway.

"And besides, CQC specialists are in such short supply."

"Oh fuck you." Romeo said, he was actually starting to like the sniper a bit.

FAIRE

DURING SURGERY

I look around, it's dark… The prior events flared up in my mind. I feel the heat of the controls in my right hand as I open the cockpit and catch his arm.

"Let go!" he yells, I shake my head.

"No!" I answer, the only rebuttal I could find, he was so heavy, because of the damn armor…

"That's an order." He replies. Is he seriously trying to pull rank on me? I could see the Scarab in the distance flaring. The flood was busy going after the Covenant on the ridge, we won. Soon the warhead would go off, and that would be the end. I was accepting of my fate as long as I could save him, but he was so damn difficult.

"I don't give a fuck!" I find myself yelling. He slowly looks at me, his helmet de-polarizes, and I get a clear look at his face… he looked so tired, and worn out.

"Anne…" Was that all he could say? I pull on his arm harder and he gets a decent footing on the Hornet, but before he could try to reason with me the Scarab combusts in the distance, I see blue fire erupt from it, and then I see yellow light. Suddenly the controls go dead, I pull at him and he briefly gets into the hornet when suddenly the gas tank blows and it all goes dark. From then I remember all that happened from the beginning of the week.

_"What do you want?!"_

_"You never asked, and besides it was kind of obvious."_

_"Does your squad seriously act that way all the time?"_

_"Hey, he's not my boyfriend, ass-hole!"_

_"Thank you sir."_

_"Is he always like that?"_

"_I could really hurt him."_

_"Oh my god, James, I am so sorry."_

_"Remember, when you make a girl a promise… you keep it."_

If I could see him one more time… would I? And now I see his damn ring and I'm so confused and tired… I need him and yet, he keeps pushing me away. Doesn't even have the balls to tell a girl how he really feels… AGH DAMN PAIN! I look around myself, then I feel this pain, almost worse than what my arm went through, was it the surgery? Or was it me? Am I just such a fucking mess that my mind has routinely started cutting itself? Why can't I just die? My parents are dead, most of my friends are dead, I have nothing left, and god is so much of a bitch, that he won't let it END!

"Her heart beat's gone mad, administer serum."

"Yes sir…"

"Alright… it's slowly calming down… good work, it's finished.

"She shouldn't wake up for five minutes, we need to get some things."

I slowly open my eyes for what felt like the first time in years, I was on the same medical cot, the doctors around me smile on their success and heads out of the room for more operations. My vision is so hazy; I slowly look up and see a light. I slowly sit up and feel this pain on my right side. I look to see some sort of metal thing attached to my… stump. I suddenly feel the need to vomit, but couldn't find it in me… I hadn't had a damn meal since that morning. I look at the 'arm' again; the stump was wrapped in bandages which seemed to cover the stump, a long band wrapped from my arm to the mechanical nightmare. I look down the arm and see it was designed with the terminator in mind when at the end, a sharp looking five fingered hand formed. I try to feel from it, but I only felt a stump connected to metal. I slowly look down to see on the ground… blood that was a lot of my blood… But I didn't feel dizzy… no wait, I had a blood pack connected. I study the hand again, and then slowly my right hand bends one of the metal fingers. I feel a somewhat strange feeling there, like that was a nerve… that was nerve. I breathed slowly and felt my legs, they were exactly as they were, they weren't strapped down though, so the doctor must have untied me, or didn't care about safety. I slowly brought one of the feet down to the ground; I was wearing strange white shoes. A little bit of the blood splashed on them but otherwise… alright. I moved the second foot to the ground and so I tried to feel around, my walking was fine, I slowly readjust to the rest of the room, I see pictures around the room, one of the doctors, and he was a strange looking man, a beard and everything. I slowly took another step and I noticed the door that Mickey went through. There were glass windows to the other side; I could see Mickey and Dutch sitting side to side. I approach the door and try to grasp the knob with my left hand, it was locked tight… I pounded on the glass with my left, nothing, I could feel a sorta sense of abandonment on the other side as they stared at me confused, I yelled at them to let me out but they couldn't hear me and thought I was off my rocker.. I banged on the window more then finally I looked to my right 'hand', it gleamed in the florescent light. I held it back and immediately thrusted it towards the window, it went through and the glass shattered as my 'fist' made contact. I breathed heavily; Dutch and Mickey stared at me.

"…Fuck." Muttered the doctor who had just entered.

DUTCH

IMMEDIATELY

Did Anne Faire just punch through that window? Dutch stared at her, and then the doctor who saw what happened.

"I… She was supposed to be out for longer." He said shocked, the man had obviously locked the door so nobody could get in to screw with the patient, but instead the patient screwed with the window… which was now broken. Faire seemed to look much stressed out, she was banging on the window, but they couldn't hear her and… damn he was not prepared for that. Mickey was on the back of his seat too shocked for words, he clutched the box harder. Faire breathed slightly and looked at them. Dutch immediately stood up. Glass covered the floor. She seemed somewhat… embarrassed now, losing the confidence to go through the window.

Dutch immediately hurried to the door, grabbed the doctor who was still having a panic attack's key card. And then put it through the slot, the door opened. The girl nodded and slowly walked through the door, she was very uncomfortable with the arm… well obviously she was… She looked to the doctor.

"So… you think she's ready to return to the field?" Mickey asked him. Dutch recognized this doctor, he was the one that was against the surgery. Dutch stared at Mickey, then back to the doctor.

"I… Just leave…" he slowly said. Mickey slowly got up out of his seat.

"I'll call for the janitor or something…" He said simply. The three slowly walked out of the room. Immediately Mickey started.

"What the heck was that?" he asked. Faire looked down.

She looked at her arm, Dutch sighed.

"The doctors… said that your arm should be done bonding with the 'new claw' within 30 minutes, and you'll need to wear a brace while on field." He said. Faire nodded. Mickey slowly pulled something out of his pocket.

"Here." He handed the wooden box to her; she slowly caught it with the new robot arm and looked at it, then pulled out the ring from it. Dutch watched as she slowly put it on her right ring 'finger'. Mickey slightly smiled.

_That's enough excitement for today…_

"Welcome back." Faire slowly nodded.

VICTOR

3 HOURS SINCE MISSION END

FORWARD UNTO DAWN

Victor sat near one of the desks of the debriefing room. He as well as the other members of Buck's ODST team (he being a temporary replacement) to this room. He looked down one of the panels to see the great fight down over the ark… a three way between the UNSC , the Covenant, and the Flood. The hierarchy might have been gone, but the remaining forces were demanding vengeance. The HALO ring hovered above.

He heard the master Chief's plan to procure Cortana from High Charity for the index over the new halo ring, but they made sure with the chief that the ring would not be activated or attempted to be activated until all forces were either dead, or off planet. Which meant sending recalls to marine forces such as the ones within the forerunner city, or ones that lost contact with command. A full effort would take at the least a day. He sighed and then watched as the door opened, Mickey came in.

"How's the captain?" Victor asked. Mickey leaned back.

"He's made a full recovery, he shouldn't take long… He's a bit down though… I think." He said. Dutch followed into the room and sat down.

"I went to see Faire's surgery, she's been shaken good… don't know what though…. Although I guess she's better than a couple hours ago." He said. Victor sighed.

"Probably mooning over Dante." He rolled his eyes. Mickey stared at him. Victor shrugged.

"Sorry." Romeo walked in along with Eddy Buck behind him. The man seemed to have a swagger in his step.

"Wow gunny, you look good as new." Dutch said. Buck nodded.

"So heard any survivors from Say-My-Name?" he asked. Dutch sighed.

"Not yet, anyways sir… hard to believe it crashed right in front of the Citadel… Strange when you think of it." He said. Buck nodded.

"I know… there has to be survivors though… " Buck then said. He then looked at Victor.

"I asked Sargent Johnson if I could borrow you a little longer, he agreed for a transfer." He said. Victor grinned slightly.

"But you'll have to do more than sniping, seeing as Romeo's back." He said. Victor nodded.

"I won't let you down sir." He said.

"As for our plan… The UNSC has called for a major recall of all vehicles, weapons and personnel… We're not leaving Dante there to die." Buck said. Romeo smirked.

"I wouldn't dream of you deciding to leave your little protégé behind." He said. Buck rolled his eyes.

"Good to know you're in Great shape, Romeo." He said. Kojo sighed.

"Can't help it, sometimes you put too much faith in him." He said.

"And look where that got us, none of us are dead, and unless you decide to drop down stiff, I'd say keep your mouth shut." Buck immediately retorted. Romeo nodded. The door opened one more time to reveal Anne Faire, she seemed in better condition than two and a half hours prior. On her right side was a mechanical arm, for use in UNSC military until a new one could be cloned at Earth. She sat down in a seat beside Mickey. He looked at her, she stared towards Buck.

Victor looked at Faire and saw that on her new mechanical right arm she wore a silver ring. Her hair was wrapped in a rough ponytail, obviously still getting use to the new digs. Buck looked at them.

"Gentlemen, we have a new mission… we are to return to the ARK and repossess all personnel, and since we only have a couple leads, some of us are heading to the city structure, others are heading to the crash site… The war is over, but we still have a job to do." Eddy Buck's voice said. Victor nodded, he felt somewhat… good, he was now an ODST, Johnson was alright, and they had a new mission.

"Alright, what's the new digs?" Romeo asked. Buck looked to him.

"We're heading to the crash site to look for survivors, and engage with any nearby Covenant/Flood." HE said. Victor nodded.

"Get your gear sorted and meet me at the Pelican in ten minutes." He said. the meeting was adjurned.

He saw Faire get up and talk with him over piloting, she obviously wanted to pilot them down there and then let the co-pilot take over, he shook his head.

"No Anne, you've got enough to worry about." He said. The girl looked down.

"Fine, but I pilot the return trip."

"If, we survive that long." Buck said slightly smiling. This was his thing, Victor could tell. He looked to the other Hell-jumpers as they started getting their gear on, he headed to one of the lockers and opened it up, inside was an ODST combat armor with helmet and such, the others wore the armor they had prior, or armor like that. Victor slowly putted on the plain ODST armor and finished it off with the helmet, he sat it on his head. Immediately he started up the HUD. It was colored yellow, like the VISR.

"NEW USER, PLEASE INSERT NAME" It voiced in his COM. Immediately a keyboard appeared. He flicked his eyes towards the symbols and started typing it in.

"Victor… Quentin, Service number 095621…" immediately it linked to his service file and he selected continue, it linked to his profile and finished. He then tweaked the settings and looked at himself in the mirror.

_An odst… guys at home won't believe this._

The armor felt… nice, slightly more heavy then normal issued armor, and the pack didn't help, but it was good. He walked to the nearby weapon cache and grabbed a magnum pistol and was about to grab for the sniper rifle… then sighed.

_"But you'll have to do more than sniping, seeing as Romeo's back."_

He slowly grabbed for the assault rifle, then changed his mind and grabbed the SMG. Victor loaded it and put it to his side. He then followed Mickey (the last to get dressed) to the hangar. They finally got there and entered the nearby Pelican, Everyone was already settled, and the Pilot immediately spoke.

"I'm Tom Kingsly, call-sign, Puzzler, everyone got that?" he asked. The helljumpers onboard nodded.

"Good, I've been assigned to your… mission; I'm on link to other pelicans for when we find survivors." HE said. He had a slightly… meh it's a day job kind of voice, but he atleast seemed to know what he was doing. Everyone was seated in the Pelican. The pilot nodded to them and started the thrusters, the back of the pelican closed up. Victor felt somewhat anxious to get the mission going, while the others sat with their helmets on their laps. In rows starting from him at the end they were Romeo, Mickey, Buck, and then Faire on the other side with Dutch beside her. Strangely, they all couldn't help but stare at Faire's new arm… it was like… the gorilla in the room. He would have expected Mickey, or Romeo to ask about it, but they remained silent. She seemed to have a lot on her mind. Tom spoke from the cockpit.

"Alright, we're getting close, entering the ARK's atmosphere in five minutes." He said. Victor breathed. He made sure to check his rifle again, the ammo was loaded, and all he needed to do was click the safety off. He sat back in his seat. Eddy Buck stood up, He seemed to have made a full recovery from his injury hours ago, and he had gotten pierced by the warthog turret… That ultimately led to putting Dante in charge.

"Sir, how are you feeling?" he asked. Buck gave a meh kind of expression.

"I'm fine." The pelican rumbled as it entered the atmosphere, Victor looked out through one of the windows on the side, he could see the HALO ring in the sky.

"Am I the only one freaked out by that thing?" Dutch shrugged.

"Don't be a baby, a little sign of Armageddon's never hurt nobody."

ROOKIE

2 HOURS AFTER NEW MISSION PLACEMENT

James looked at the soldiers, the medic successfully patched up the wounded and they were slowly going up through the facility. Alcatraz told him to get them on the nearby elevator going up then remain down to look for something. They walked by the dead brutes from an hour ago, still quite dead.

"So what do you need me to do for you?" He asked into his helmet, Alcatraz answered.

"In order to take back my installation, I need to reinsert myself into certain… areas, on the ARK, it will become a sort of virus and fight off the current 'superintendent'. However I need to install into different areas among the ARK, some of which I do not know the location to… do I'll need you to take me to these places." HE said. James sighed, sounded like a big job.

"And what if I don't?"

"Well, then I'll simply close the energy shields on you and it will tear you apart, and seeing as you have no wanting for that-"

"I get it… whatever." James found himself saying. The thing promised to kill him if he betrayed 'it'. Slowly this job was sucking more and more.

"Hey… what other files did you find? Any signals from the Say-My-Name?" He asked. Alcatraz waited a moment then answered.

"The ship impacted near, from my sources, it's still somewhat intact… that's all I'll tell you however." HE said. James groaned, this thing was keeping him on a short leash. They reached the elevator, the marines looked to him, he sighed.

"I can't come along, I have a new objective down here, and it should be clear up there however… might be some flood though." He said. Baker looked at him.

"Thanks for what you've done, once we get in range, we'll call for evac." HE said. James nodded. He saluted them and slowly walked away from the elevator the marines were entering. HE watched them as the platform started rising, and left him alone with the AI.

"So sad I suppose, now follow the new waypoints I'm setting up for you." Alcatraz said. Suddenly in the hallway a blue arrow appeared. He started following it as it updated the more he went through the facility. Along the way Alcatraz tended to make annoyed remarks from his questioning, and such… It's not that James didn't like AIs, hell his parents were going to get him into that line of work, it's just this one was… strange. They finally reached a door. Alcatraz stopped him.

"I detect movement… slowly take a look." The AI ordered. James clutched the rifle and slowly the door opened, he saw flood combat forms.

"Seems the grave-mind caught wind of my little scheme…"

"What?"

"Take them out, carefully." James immediately fired the rifle towards one of the five flood creatures, the thing fell apart. Another jumped towards him; he kicked it down and then threw a grenade towards the other three. He felt a slight rumble in his rib cage as he rolled to the other side away from the grenade. The three monsters died leaving the one he kicked down, the thing immediately jumped towards him, he side stepped it and immediately started stabbing it in the back repeatedly. The thing moaned and then slowly died on the ground. He looked at the knife.

"Ah… all puss-y." The knife had what looked to be vomit all over it; he wiped it on the ground and then put it in its slit. Alcatraz continued.

"Good, now take a look at what those things were doing." James looked to see some sort of… giant terminal in the shape of a circle. The room went all around it. This seemed to be some sort of core room of the ARK, there were eight other terminals that showed structures like the one here, he slowly walked towards the terminal in the middle.

"That's it, approach it and insert my chip… and no, removing the chip and leaving won't save you." He said. James walked to the terminal and pulled out the AI chip, he slapped it into the machine and saw it starting.

"Good work… I'll just… done." It said. He saw the terminals on it that were originally red, turn blue.

"Yank me; we still have a lot of work to do." James slowly put the chip back in.

"I inserted a fragment of myself in there, right now it's weak, but once we get a couple more, I'll start taking over." The AI said. James sighed.

"Wonderful…"

"Until then… we now have access to the teleport rig, you see the machine to your right? Approach it." James slowly walked towards the strange fore-runner machine.

"Since he didn't approve of the high cost energy levels for ease of access teleportation system."

_He?_

"They installed teleporters in certain areas, such as these control rooms… let me look at it for a moment… ah, we have access to the next region where we'll find the next terminal, doesn't go straight to it though… enter it." He stared at the thing. This AI was telling him to possibly enter this… thing.

"You sure about this?"

"… Are you serious?"

"I know it's just…"

"A Trust issue? We do not have time for that, we're on the same boat, so go through the machine."

James entered the thing and suddenly a green light appeared and started going around him. It went faster and faster then suddenly everything went dark.

"_Fucking AI"_

(As I'm typing this end note, I'm home sick, so I figured I might as well edit this a bit more and post it. The only things I feel a bit uneasy about is Faire's surgery, and the representation of the chief, for her surgery, I seriously have no idea how space surgery is done, I assume it's like star wars, and if anyone's wondering, Faire from now on will be done in first person, she's going through all these emotions and I think it'd be the best way to convey them, it kind of reminds me of Lucy from glasslands, and on to the chief, I really have no idea what his plan was after Truth was killed, he wanted to light the ring, so I suppose that meant getting everyone out, but it didn't actually light, it just damaged the ark… so I have no idea. Anyways I hope your all enjoying this, please review.)


	3. Chapter 3

THE ROOKIE

2 HOURS AND 30 MINUTES AFTER NEW MISSION PLACEMENT

_Fucking AI, fuck fuck fuck, now I'm stuck in this wasteland…_

James Dante slowly stepped away from the teleporter… thing, only to find him immediately knee deep in sand, he had been knocked out for five minutes because… well he didn't know. All of a sudden, he heard an all too familiar voice.

"Dante, are you there?" He slapped the side of his helmet. The voice stopped. He could feel a rustling in his ribs, from the one he broke a while back.

"Your camera's glitched up a bit, what's out there?"

"What's out there… it's a desert…" He said, truth be told, he was now a foot in sand. The day was well… night, and so it was the cold hours of the desert. As well as, there was a chilly wind flowing through. James tried to gather his bearings, he removed the helmet for a moment and breathed in, immediately finding himself coughing from the kicked up sand. He heard the helmet beap and slowly scooped it up, and flipping it over, sand fell out. He looked at the front of the Helmet for a moment, it had a standard ODST VISR, colored yellow, on the side was an antenna. HE heard the beeping again and slowly slid the helmet back on.

"Okay… it's coming back, sorry I didn't tell you." The AI answered unapologetically. James was starting to feel a slight regret for saving the soldiers; he could have gone with Johnson… and Faire. He sighed and slowly trudged through the sand. His assault rifle was clipped by magnets to his back. His pistol was on his side.

"Of all the… forget it…" The AI did not respond.

"So the terminal's out here? Any waypoints?" He asked. Alcatraz started going through something, then a large map of the ARK appeared on his HUD. James turned his head in a couple directions to see the map rotate ever so slightly.

"This is from a long time ago, so it might not be very… accurate." It said, James studied the map, this place wasn't supposed to be a desert, but then again, he wasn't supposed to be here either.

_Does this thing even know what it's doing?_

He looked around the map, he could see an arrow, which he assumed was himself, this was green, like plants and wild-life. In the middle, was a circular grey spot, a star was there. He slowly took off the map to see how far this place was suppose to be, the waypoint read a couple kilometers, long distance, he kept walking.

"Ok… got any transmissions?" He asked. Alcatraz slowly answered with a deliberate-

"No, none." James sighed as he walked on following the waypoint, he started up the night vision on his visor, also known as VISR, and yellow lines started appearing on the edges of sand. When he tried to look closer to the sand, more edges appeared, and then he noticed his hands and body itself was drawn with green outlines. He hadn't used this feature in a while; it saved him back in Mombasa. His hand slowly drew out the pistol at his side while he trudged on; he checked its magazine, all full. And he had at least 50 more rounds for it. He slowly pitched the magnum back onto its slot on his side, he wouldn't find Covenant here… yet.

"What about any UNSC COM traffic?" he asked.

"What do you mean?"

"Communications between the UNSC members."

"…No." It said again, like it didn't want to tell him… but that was fine, it was the boss… for now. He could feel the somewhat extreme feel of the cold on himself; luckily his suit was heated, but not very much, a Spartan would do much better in this situation. He looked up and saw a vast collection of stars, they seemed much different than how they were on Luna… although Lights were on everywhere and-

"Reclaimers stargaze?" Alcatraz asked. James sighed slightly.

"Yeah… what we use to do all the time, before we got space travel…" which was… and honest answer.

"I see… I had only seen those stars through pictures and VID feed… it creates a somewhat calming effect on the wildlife." Alcatraz slowly said. James slowly nodded. So the AI was interested in the universe, more than just its facility… strange, he did not expect that.

"You ever think of going out there?"

"Myself? My makers would think that absurd, when we have much more important issues, such as containment… I could not dare to think of shirking my duties to wander about." James sighed, the thing was uptight and prideful.

"Alright sheesh… I didn't mean anything."

"Very well… Reclaimer." It said.

He kept going through the sand, he was starting to go through it faster and it was getting shallower, and so he could walk at a quicker rate.

_All this damn sand… this was a bad idea…_

He sighed, and then asked.

"If that was an old map… then you've seen this place before the sand came in?"

"Images… yes, this use to be a home for my makers, then the rings were lit and… they went away… the sand came in shortly afterwards." James didn't answer, he just kept walking.

He slowly took off his helmet and felt the icy breeze on his skin, it whipped at his cheeks. He quickly putted the helmet back on, it was colder than it was before, and it was barely tolerable with armor… he couldn't imagine being a marine like Victor. Victor was a sniper Johnson paired him up with; guy was in his thirties and a good shot. He made it out with the others.

"Should the flood be here?"

"…Perhaps, we are on the tip of one of the ends of the ARK, so I would find it unlucky they could travel in such few hours… seeing the condition of high charity." It said. That was right; they got on the ARK maybe… over 5 hours ago?

"How do you know about some of these things?"

"I have access to cameras around the ARK, also some areas I can affect hard light deployment… like back when your people used that Nuclear device, only hours ago." That immediately caught James' attention, he knows all about that, so that could explain how he…

"So it was you.. that saved me." James said. Hard light technology took up a lot of power… but it's lifesaving as well, the only thing it can't stop would likely be the rings. In reality that blast should have killed him and Faire, but instead he only remembered seeing a blue light for a moment, then darkness.

"Yes… it was, and your friend, a blast like that is… suicidal, and I needed you…" Alcatraz said.

"I… that's…"

"Hard to believe? It doesn't matter, we need to keep moving." James kept walking, the AI was opening up to him, it could tell him more, he'd just need to have the right questions.

"So… going back to the flood… what are you going to do?"

"Once I have control, I can set up defenses with the sentinels… 343 guilty spark does not know what he's doing with them."

"Spark?"

"The AI unit assigned to installation 04, he seemed to have allied himself with…" Alcatraz trailed off.

James sighed, now would be a good time to get some water, maybe later. He sighed and then remembered one of the reasons one man teams were given AI partners, to keep them sane.

"So… what happened with your 'facility'?" he asked. The AI was silent, then slowly answered.

"It was taken from me… The makers didn't like how I ran things, and so they dumped me in some terminal and let another AI take over, case closed." It said shrilly.

"So, no hard feelings?"

"I don't care how mommy and daddy took away my birthright… for all I care, they can-" It said. Birthright? Was this thing… jealous?

"Birthright?"

"…We can have this discussion later." James sighed, the thing didn't trust him. It must have been a very personal issue… person? He stopped thinking of it and slowly heard a rustling in the sand, then saw lights gleam out. James looked up to see a brute chopper; the occupant, obviously was a brute, which wore desert rags across his face. The thing had a communicator on its belt, and it started speaking into it.

James realized this vehicle was the thing he's been waiting for.

"Do it." James hand slid to his knife.

ROMEO

30 MINUTES AFTER MISSION START/ 3 HOURS AND 40 MINUTES AFTER PRIOR MISSION END

Kojo Agu gripped his sniper rifle; he could feel the pelican's shift of gravity into the ARK's atmosphere.

"We're going in hot, hang on!" Eddy Buck said. Romeo quickly putted his helmet on, his HUD flashed on and registered.

KOJO… AGU… SERVICE NUMBER 14606… COMPLETE

The others quickly did as he did, except for Victor, he had his on already.

The screen at the pelican controls started flashing, Tom Kingsly the pilot sighed and quickly typed at them, the message went away.

"What was that?" The pilot sighed.

"No clue, wasn't covenant… it just gave us clearance though." He said.

_Civil authority? On the god-damn ARK?_

"Relay that to the Dawn." Buck ordered, Kingsly nodded, typing. Romeo looked out the window and could see they were getting closer to the ARK. Mickey sighed.

"So this thing… gave us clearance?" he asked. Kinsley sighed about to answer, Dutch interrupted.

"Doesn't matter yet, what does is we find those survivors." He said. Romeo groaned, there wasn't any proof of survivors, they could all be dead at the moment.  
"Don't get your hopes up." He looked around the group and saw Faire was giving him the evil stare… well, the hell jumper equivalent, because of the helmets… Victor sighed.

"Look, we're almost there, let's wait until we're on ground to get on each other's nerves… we have a big job ahead of us." He said. Romeo groaned.

"Whatever…" Romeo stared out the window and got a good look at the rubble that use to be the UNSC SAY-MY-NAME, parts such as the hull, and other areas seemed to be intact, but others not so much, most of it was burning. Kingsly looked back at the helljumpers.

"I'll land at the light bridge into the citadel, there's a hole that goes into the ship from there." He said. Eddy Buck nodded.

"Okay, we need to split up into two groups, once to search the wreckage, and another to secure to citadel." He said. The troopers nodded.

"Romeo, Victor, you with me, Dutch, Faire and Mickey, you guys are together." He said. The troopers nodded. Faire quickly loaded a round into her shotgun. Romeo did the equivalent with his sniper rifle. Everyone watched Faire as she finished loading her ammo. She had literally gotten surgery maybe two hours ago, and already she's prepping for combat, but it wasn't just that… She was crying during the trip to the Dawn. If they were to break under pressure, it'd be her first.

"Puzzler, stay close watch out for anything." Buck finished. The pilot nodded.

"You got it." The pelican lowered to the bridge, Romeo's group got off first, Romeo turned his head to look around the area, the ship looked to be a large heap, and it was dark out so the fires were very easy to see. Buck's team then jumped to the bridge, Dutch(who followed in last) had a slight misstep on the bridge, and caught himself. Romeo looked at him.

"What, I'm not one for long rides." He said, slowly standing back up, casually. Romeo chuckled.

"Right, Dutch… you take care of the kiddos for me, eh?" Dutch nodded.

"You know me, I'm not one for disappointing friends." Dutch stepped towards his group, Faire and Mickey, while Romeo walked to his.

"Alright troopers, into the citadel." Buck ordered. The two marines obeyed and followed him as the other three headed towards the rubble of the SAY-MY-NAME. They went through the 'door' and entered a long hallway, Romeo examined the area, it was clear, except for flood residue everywhere. Buck sighed.

"If Dante's alive, he'd gone through here, see that?" He asked. They looked towards the walls, there was an opening that went down towards what looked to be an elevator.

"I doubt the fore-runners would build this place to be destroyed if it was the control room, and it seems I was right." HE said. Romeo nodded, the walls were still up.

"I guess." Victor crouched down beside some Flood Residue on the ground, making sure not to touch it with his hands.

"Thought the stuff was just something the chief made up or… something…. Didn't expect it to be-"

"Well… it is." Buck said, hearing a rustle from, across the room.

"And these things were the fore-runner's boogeymen." Flood spawns were approaching from one side of the hallway. They were a nasty vomit color.

MICKEY

35 MINUTES AFTER MISSION START

Michael Crespo walked down the bridge towards the ship rubble. Faire and Dutch followed from behind.

"I bet there's some flood in there." Dutch said sighing. Mickey nodded.

"Then we gotta handle it." He said, Faire quickly took the lead, slightly flaunting the shotgun. Michael had an SMG with scope and sound suppressor, as well as a battle rifle on his back. Dutch had the same kit. They both clutched the rifles closely. They walked down the steps, towards the rubble, and then approached a large cut in the metal from the ship. It looked weak and like it could be bent back to alow access to the inner workings. Mickey grabbed one of the sides of sheet metal, but immediately jumped back.

"Ow, it's hot." HE said. Dutch sighed.

"I'll be damned, Mickey." Mickey stared back at him.

"What? I was just-"

Faire then stepped forward and dug her right hand into the metal and then stretched it out of the way, to reveal a dark hole with twitching lights inside. Mickey sighed.

_Wish I had a robot hand_

Faire walked into the darkness, followed by Mickey, then Dutch holding their back.

"Use your VISR, it's a bit too dark in here." Mickey nodded and flicked on the VISR. It flashed and then he could see the parts of the ship, outlined in yellow.

"Where are we?"

"Fuel room… must have been hit hard." Dutch said. Mickey stood by a railing and could see pipes. He could hear something.

"Stop for a moment… hear that?" Their movement stopped and they could hear a slight drip of liquid falling out a pipe. Faire cocked her head to the side. Mickey found the pipe and then studied the liquid.

"Fuel… most of it must had made it, we better send this in to command and-"

"We lost contact." Dutch simply said. Mickey looked at him, then tried his COM, nothing.

"Something dampening our signals?"

"Could just be the ship, gonna be hard to send a message through all this metal." HE said. Mickey looked back to him.

"Why don't we just go back outside?" the opening out was still in walking distince. Dutch sighed.

"Somehow, I don't think it's the ship… lets make our way in and see if we can restore power."

Mickey sighed, then looked around the room.

"Alright, great to know… best not to fire weapons 'till we're out of here though." Dutch nodded.

"Good thinking… genius."

"Hey, I try, you know…"

"I know… we all are, especially Gunny… did you see the look on his face when this heap fell?" He asked.

"No… but I get it… it'd be best for us to keep going-" Immediately he slipped slightly and caught his foot, he looked down. Dutch groaned.

"What was that?" The three marines looked to the strange puddle Mickey almost slipped on. Faire crouched down to it. Dutch slowly took his helmet off, they couldn't see with night vision. Mickey did the same.

"Faire, turn on your flashlight." The read-head marine obliged, starting up her flashlight, the puddle was strong in odor, and vomit colored, and they could see it in a lot more places. Dutch groaned.

"Well, this is just convenient, Flood's on the ship, and we can't fire a shot." Faire immediately turned to a nearby noise. It sounded quick, and like… dragging a dead body. Faire cocked her rifle around and then quickly putted her helmet back on. Mickey did the same and covered her side. Dutch surveyed the area then sighed.

"No point in aiming weapons, if we can't use them without dying. And I think the flood knows that too." Mickey slowly lowered his rifle.

"Fine… you're the boss, what do we do?" Dutch slowly putted his helmet back on.

"Keep going through, find any survivors, and get out, I think the flood only JUST got here." Mickey nodded.

"Kay, Lead on." Dutch did so, allowing Mickey to go ahead, he walked by Faire.

"I know your disappointed by the lack of shooting, but it should be better later on." He said. Faire didn't respond. He was in the back of the group when Faire walked past him.

"Great to know your putting a full effort in…"

VICTOR

45 MINUTES AFTER MISSION START

Quentin Victor fired towards a nearby flood combat form, the thing absorbed ten bullets until falling to the ground. The things were swarming them.

"Cover my flank!" Buck yelled rushing towards one and firing; one came from behind him and immediately fell from a sniper round. He missed the sound of that kind of rifle. Romeo seemed to be having enough trouble already, these things were everywhere, and he had resorted to using his pistol in his left hand to try and cover himself. Immediately something pushed Victor down and he looked up to see a flood monster with an assault rifle, the thing had strange tentacles for arms, and faded green marine attire on its lower body, it reminded him of Quasimodo from those movies. he rolled to the side and quickly emptied the last of his rifle's round into the thing.

_Rookie went through this stuff?_

Buck then fired towards another flood thing and it fell to the ground. Victor quickly got up and kept firing, this was a shifting battle, at one point one of them would get hit, fall, and then get back up. Victor was more often than the others in the occasion of not realizing how much abuse the armor could really take. There were windows nearby the hallway, which could brighten the room, but it was nighttime, and so the artificial lights on parts of the architecture illuminated the room. Victor fired into another one then sighed.

"Carriers!" he fired into the strange pod like flood creatures, then heard Buck yell.

"Fall back! Behind cover!" Victor obeyed his CO's orders and ran towards the entrance, and quickly got beside one of the pillars, Romeo was at the one adjacent to his. The sniper started firing from his rifle and taking down a lot of flood, at this point they could see the zombie things had acquired covenant explosives and started blowing everything to hell. Buck threw a grenade into a group and then got behind cover; a large amount of them blew into the air, slowly breaking up from the continual stress on their dead bodies. He could tell they weren't going to win this.

"What's the plan?"

"Fight, maybe call for backup… but this is suicide taking on all these things."

"Maybe you shouldn't have split up the team."

"Can it."

Suddenly they could see from the end of the hallway, the flood creatures were starting to fall, and then noticed they were dying from bullets. Victor looked forward.

"I'll be damned…" It was Johnson's squad, They were quick and had excellent aiming… as well as there were seven of them. The soldiers fired through he rest of the flood and hurried to the three marines..

"I could have taken them." Eddy Buck said greeting one of the soldiers, Baker. He sighed.

"We were imprisoned on the lower levels; an ODST trooper got us out." Buck stared at him.

"Dante?"

"Affirmative, he said he had other matters to deal with down there, however." HE answered. Victor could tell Buck seemed pleased.

"Rookie's alive?" Romeo whispered, Victor nodded.

"Seems so…"

"Did he say what his 'matters' were?" Buck asked looking towards the corporal, the man sighed.

"No, must have been important though."

FAIRE

50 MINUTES AFTER MISSION START

I looked to the right, Mickey was behind me, the whole ship felt… dead, but someone had to survive.

"What happened here anyways?" Mickey asked. I hear a sigh from Dutch as he turned his head.

"Don't know, we lost communications, and then it crashed… maybe someone here will tell us…" I sighed and then studied the area, we were in a hallway. I felt the creaking of the metal plating as we stepped through, lights were flashing on and off and I could see sparks; this ship was from the harvest campaign… a terrible way to go.

_Sooner we find them, sooner we get out._

We suddenly hear that dragging noise again, I cock my rifle out to see, but nothing was there.

"Place gives me the creeps." Mickey says randomly, I breathe in slowly and keep walking; we were past the fuel line, so we could fire weapons. I slowly keep trudging along; my VISR system was on and illuminated the area for me. Crack-crack-crack, I turn to the source of the noise, nothing was there. I decide to flip the safety off my rifle and keep looking around. I could hear old messages playing from the PA-system.

"All hands to deck, captain Co-" But that's all it kept re-playing. I slowly lower my left hand to my pocket and find a familiar piece of metal strapped to my side, a silenced magnum pistol, something was here. Covenant? Flood maybe? I couldn't tell, all I knew was I wanted to get out of here. I try to stop thinking but can't help it; I then look at the silver band on my right fourth 'finger'… What did James want? I slowly stop that thinking to return to the ship when suddenly the ship shook. I gripped a nearby rail, as the other two marines slip and fall.

"What was that?" Mickey asks, we had no idea, they both slowly get up, and we increase our pace, running now. My Visor worked quickly to render the feed. I clutched my rifle in my left hand, but then felt it was getting sweaty, and putted it in my right. I tried to look behind, but I couldn't get enough of a view without fully turning my body. Suddenly my foot snags on something and I fall to the ground, I immediately turn start firing my shotgun into whatever was chasing us, it fell to the ground, dead. I looked at my HUD and realized, my heartbeat skyrocketed. I slowly stand up and approach the thing, Mickey and Dutch followed me. I finally approached the dead body, to find it was a… grunt? It's gas pack was punctured, and it seemed… rabid. Mickey crouched down next to it.

"What happened to it?" Dutch sighed turning it over, revealing a shotgun wound in its side.

"It got shot." He patted me on the back, I shake my head, this was strange, it wasn't even carrying a plasma pistol, something was wrong. The blood from the shot seemed unusual in color.

I crouched down and slowly draw out my knife I stare at the blade for the moment, and then delicately punctured it's neck, blue blood sizzled out, but it seemed to have a sorta… yellow tint to it. Dutch studied it.

"Hm, we should take samples." He pulls out a small canister from his pack and feed some of the blood into it, he then packed it up, I slowly stood up.

_So the Covenant got on the ship, and we didn't know… strange_

"Hey, who are you?" I hear a voice; I immediately turn to see an… engineer. I point my shotgun, I was about to fire… The man pointed a pistol. Dutch and Mickey only raised their hands I breathed slowly. The man began.

"Don't shoot." I didn't respond for a moment, but then I slowly lowered the shotgun… I was about to kill him, I really am a cold hard bitch.

DUTCH

1 HOUR AFTER MISSION START

Dutch turned to the engineer; he was hiding in the pipes nearby. The marine stepped towards him. The engineer shook and lowered the pistol.

"Name?"

"John Gordon, I was assigned to this 'ship'." The man looked down sighing, Dutch nodded.

"Alright, we're marines sent to find survivors, any more of you?" he asked, the man nodded.

"Yeah, we have a lot of wounded, but their alive. Dutch nodded. He slowly walked behind Gordon.

"What happened?" Gordon sighed.

"I don't know… it's tied to some ONI mission that the regular personnel aren't allowed to know, but I saw what the ship was doing, it crashed into the ARK, like the captain just control of it." Dutch sighed; this man didn't know what was going on. Mickey walked behind Gordon asking more questions.

"When we were gonna crash, I headed to one of the zero G rooms… ones used for surgeries, cushioned the impact, others did as well, some, however… just stayed around… hey weren't you that idiot from days before?" Mickey looked down, he probably was, and they were stationed on this ship when they passed into the slip-space portal.

"Doesn't matter…" Gordon slowly nodded.

"Alight, anyways, don't expect to get anything out of the ONI officers that made it, those spooks love holding a secret."

"Is the captain still alive? Commander Cox?" Dutch asked, they were walking through a broken hallway."

"I don't know, I hadn't gone by the bridge yet." He said, he then approached a nearby large hole in the wall, and looked to the Marines.

"Come in, it's a shortcut." He said. Dutch nodded and slowly followed, Mickey and Faire did the same.

"Ever since the ship crashed, doors had been disabled, so we had to dig up our power tools and make our own way through, it's trouble, when you consider Covenant all over the ship, and those… things."

"You mean the flood?"

"That's the flood? Damn." The kept going through the hole, and Dutch noticed Gordon was holding a magnum pistol; he must have had to use it quite a bit. Dutch then recalled the man was pointing it at them when he found them.

"Seen a lot of action here?" Dutch asked, going through a wrecked bedroom.

"A bit, Covenant's dazed, and those flood things…" almost immediately something leaped to Gordon, the man shook, it seemed to be some kind of pod.

"Get it off, get it… a…" he started changing, Dutch froze not knowing what to do, mickey did the same, then immediately Faire fired on the man, he fell to the ground, half changed, the thing that was growing on his head died and latched off. Faire knelt down to him, they could hear her breathing. She looked towards her right arm, in a slight shock, she then looked to Dutch and Mickey like they were going to kill her. Dutch shook his head.

"We all heard the reports, flood does this… he would of wanted that, before he could hurt someone." He said. He slowly took Gordon's pistol and putted it on one of his holsters.

"Come on, we gotta keep moving, there's people who need to get out of here." He looked at Faire, her helmet de-polarized; he saw the trouble in her eyes. This must have been the first human she killed ever. Killing Covenant was nothing, the UNSC had been doing it for over 30 years, but compared to insurrectionists… it bothers people, not to mention this one was probably still alive the moment she shot him. He sighed.

"We can't save all of them… but we need to try." She slowly got up; her metal arm gleamed in the light flicking on and off. Dutch turned towards the exit.

"We're close, I know it."

BUCK

1 HOUR AFTER MISSION START

Eddy Buck stared at Corporal Baker.

"So he just remained down there?" He asked. Baker nodded.

"Yes, sir… maybe he found another way out." He said, Buck sighed.

"Maybe, stay here and hold the perimeter, me and my troopers will take a look." He motioned to Romeo and Victor, they walked to the elevator, Buck looked to the troopers.

"Do your COMS work?" Baker nodded.

"Yeah, we couldn't get reception down there, but now they… yeah we can reach the Dawn."

"Good… we can't lose more." Buck said, he walked away towards the elevator. Buck stepped on and it started going down, he inserted a new mag into his rifle, and then clicked the safety off. Victor looked at him.

"You think Rookie's down here?" He asked, Buck sighed,

"Don't know… wasn't that your old squad?" He asked. Victor sighed himself.

"Yeah… it was…"

"I'd expect you to be a bit more excited." Victor looked to him weirdly.

"Sir, I have a job to do here, and I was assigned to your squad, I can't waste time messing with my friends." He said. Buck nodded.

"Sheesh, alright…" The elevator finally reached the end, Romeo got off first, then Buck, and then Victor.

"Let's take a look around, if Dante was here, we'll find him." He said. The three started walking through the hallway of the lower levels. It was very large; they eventually reached some kind of old terminal. Its screen was red and partly broken.

"Romeo, take a look." The ODST sighed and approached the computer, he started typing. Strange symbols appeared.

"Identification, found… welcome: Kojo Agu." Romeo jumped back.

"The hell this thing knows who I am?" He asked. Buck shrugged.

"Maybe it found some files from our COM chatter." On the screen was some kind of red eye. Buck noticed that there was some kind of camera mounted on it. The red eye grew larger.

"My makers, had imprisoned a module here… where did it go?"

THE ROOKIE

3 HOURS AFTER NEW MISSION PLACEMENT

James slowly got closer to the Covenant Brute, its armor was a deep blue with desert rags, the wind whipped away at it, and the thing didn't notice him. It sat on a chopper, a new covenant infantry vehicle which came into style ever since the brutes took the elites' place. It was like a motorcycle with rotating saw wheels in the front. It was speaking into a communicator, James slowly got closer and finally jumped to the bike, the brute then turned its head, James immediately stabbed a knife into its neck and then kicked it off, the brute died and slipped off the bike, the knife cleanly went out. James sighed and putted the knife away. The brute rolled in the sand and was soon covered by it. He then slowly got off the bike and looked to the discarded communicator, he could hear something from it, it sounded like covenant gibberish.

"What are they saying?" he asked quickly, Alcatraz translated.

"What's all the Ruckus? What do you see? Answer me!" James turned off the communicator, and picked it up.

"Great… now they know something's wrong…" Alcatraz then said.

"Perhaps you should have waited for the message to end."

"Maybe… James looked at the communicator for a moment.

"Might be useful." He putted the communicator in his pack. He then sighed.

"Why would the covenant be here? Whatever this is… obviously isn't the citadel."

"Perhaps they had other… 'intentions'."

"Like worship?"

"No… like a prison." James thought on that last bit.

"What do you mean by that?"

"I… don't know…" was the AI's only response. James sighed and slowly turned back to the bike. He got back on the chopper and started t up, he felt a sort of roar as it started to move whipping through the sand at top speed, truth be told this was the first time he ever rode one.

"You seem a bit excited, Dante…" Alcatraz inserted. James didn't respond, the waypoint Alcatraz set was getting closer, and so was the terminal. He could now see a building.

"Almost there." The structure seemed large, very obvious to see in a desert, it was kinda like the citadel, but on a smaller scale and seemed more clean… and contained. He could notice that some of the stone work was damaged from years of erosion. He then noticed something. A large group… a covenant fleet., James stopped, not moving forward, he then noticed the purple of the ships, maybe about a dozen of them.

"Phantoms…" James froze, this place must have been important. Hopefully they hadn't seen him yet. He sensed something on his motion tracker, he couldn't see it, he activated his VISR system to see red outlines everywhere, but he couldn't see them…. cloaking. He hit the gas and started moving only to see a burst of green plasma into his vehicle, and going at a stop, he fell out from the vehicle as it broke apart, his breathing staggered. He turned to see a brute chieftain, clutching a hammer, it kicked at his head, and everything went dark…

(Alright, as I'm writing this end-note I'm doing better, editing this has gone well, and later we'll go into longer chapters. Anyways, I have school tomorrow so it might take me a little longer to update than usual. I hope you all enjoy this chapter, and please review, tell me what you like, what you don't like, have a nice night.)


	4. Chapter 4

THE ROOKIE

UNKNOWN AMOUNT OF TIME SINCE MISSION PLACEMENT

_Why did I agree to this?_

That was a good question; Alcatraz just came to him hours ago and made him agree to this damn job, finding these… terminals. He didn't even know where all of them were, just that James had to help him do it… and for what? A couple soldiers? He could have just kept going through the vent he found, but he didn't… and here he was.

"Why did you come here?" The Brute interrogator asked. They were inside the forerunner structure and in some sort of… office… room for surgery. James tried to nudge his hands, but discovered they were bind together. The Brute sighed and then picked up James' helmet on the tray; they had removed his armor, well parts of it, like the arms and legs. James could feel the bitter cold from the outside slip in. All he had on his legs was fabric. Luckily the brutes didn't bother with his chassis, but they also took the helmet… The damn helmet he got from Buck. And now this 'thing' was looking at it. Why was it interrogating him? Most covenant would shoot first and ask questions never… but this thing was different. They obviously found out about their 'prophet's' death. Which must have shook everything up. Maybe this thing thought he knew who did it. And only two people could be responsible, and he didn't know if they were still alive. The Brute studied the helmet.

"You are what the humans call… a 'helljumper'." James slowly nodded.

"What about it?" The brute laughed.

"I remember killing many of your kind… hours ago." James immediately bulged towards him, anger taking over.

"Don't struggle; it'll all be over soon…" James looked towards the Alien, then looked away.

"How did you find me?" the alien then pulled out a familiar spherical metallic… thing. The communicator he picked up.

"We heard the chatter, and tracked it." James breathed, he shouldn't have taken it with him.

"Once you tell us what we want to know, it'll end." James stared down this thing.

"And what do you want to know?" The thing stared down at him, and then looked away; James noticed a data-pad in its arm.

"Why is your armor different from the other… helljumpers?" It asked. James swallowed slowly, this thing wanted to know about his armor? James' eyes trailed away.

"What do you mean… different?" This was all based off of curiosity?

"Increased durability, a shielding unit, like tech the demon's use… why do you have it?"

_Shit… can't tell him_

"I…." Why would a brute ask this? The brute himself wore dark blue armor, with green shoulder pads. He looked to see a shift in the machinery, particularly The claw, it connected to the ceiling like it was for surgery, and in the middle was a long sharp needle. The claw lowered and immediately stabbed into the brute's head. The thing fell to the ground, James could see blood seeping from its helmet, completely ignored the shields.

"Thought you could use some help." The nearby computer said, James turned immediately towards it. HE recognized that voice. The needles went to James' back and quickly poked through the bindings. James quickly got up. HE saw the familiar blue Icon on the Computer.

"Alcatraz?"

"No, the forerunners." James didn't respond.

"That is called… sarcasm." It answered back. James immediately hurried to the other parts of his armor on the table, and saw it wasn't dismantled. It was just scanned.

"How'd you get in?" James asked slowly putting on his right leg armor.

"When you were out and they looked at my chip, I simply nexed myself onto their armor, and went from dirtbag to dirtbag till I reached the terminal." He said proudly. James slowly putted the left one on, and then hurried to the arms. The fact it could do all this, he wondered why it didn't just do it in the beginning.

"Why didn't you just do it before?"

"Doing that kind of jump takes too much time and energy, time I do not have."

"What do you mean?"

"The UNSC… your 'people', plans to destroy this installation." James stared at the screen, and slowly picked up his helmet.

"So I have a day to do this."

"Correct, their plan, if it succeeds will simply damage the ARK, it will however take thousands of years to complete, and that means everything will be dead… except for the subjects the librarian keeps."

"Librarian?" Alcatraz paid no attention to that part.

"… And if you die, I will not be able to take control." Alcatraz finished, James nodded.

"So you're in full control?"

"OF this area of the installation? Somewhat, it's approximately 67.333333333% if you round to the billion mark." James sighed, so this thing wasn't in full control yet.

"How much of the ARK do you have?"

"…42… 43 percent…" James nodded. The AI impressed him a little bit.

"Alright… where am I?"

"Put on your helmet, I'll upgrade your HUD." James slowly did so, putting his helmet on.

"You are deep within the facility, in an interrogation room, I disabled the cameras. I have found a new terminal to access. So you must make your way to the teleporter. Which is… here." Alcatraz said, on the map it showed Jame's current location, very deep inside the facility, and far from his position, the terminal room.

"I have left a part of myself in control of the facility, it can help you get through these things." It nudged towards the brute on the ground, James grabbed the knife on the tray and looked to the brute, James knelt down, it was still breathing.

"What are you waiting for?" Alcatraz asked. James shook his head. His slid the knife away.

"No… This thing… it's not worth it… and besides, it probably has brain damage." He immediately stood up.

"Can you monitor the UNSC COM channels? I need to be kept informed."

"…Fine." James knelt down and picked up the Brute's plasma rifle, it was red, and felt slightly heavier than the ones used by elites.

_It'll have to make due for now._

He paced towards the door, it slid open, and he then entered a grey hallway. His HUD updated with a new marker telling him to go left.

"I've disabled the station's communications, the covenant's in the dark." Alcatraz said. James nodded, he made another left turn in a slight jog.

"Stop!" immediately he did so, he looked to see a small group of Covenant Unngoys, or grunts as they would call them. They were sitting around chatting.

"Did you hear about the hierarch?" One of them chirped. The other answered back.

"Rumors yes… that the demon got his holiness, not officially announced though." Alcatraz seemed to take an interest in this.

"I see, the covenant would not tell itself that its leaders are dead… yet, we could use this." James sighed, and then slowly prepared the weapon.

"Kill them, but conserve your charge." James quickly approached the hallway and fired a short burst of blue plasma towards the grunts, they each hit and the aliens were dead on the floor. Only one managed to shoot, his shields were near full still.

"Good work, keep going through… I'm looking at their security network and… curious."

"What?"

"They seem too… have some separatist sanghelli imprisoned here…"

"Elites?"

"Yes… The covenant has quite a presence, I'm changing your waypoint, free them, and they'll be useful."

FAIRE

1 HOUR 10 MINUTES

I slowly looked to the man dead on the floor… I did this, he was going to die anyways… but I did it… why did I do it? I should have just let him get at me, infect me or whatever I don't care… but I killed him. I slowly look at my right arm, it gleams in the light that keeps flashing. My gun was lowred. I look at the man again, if I didn't do what I did, the flood would have finished him off and come for us… but I don't understand the problem… what if I just let it do it… I feel a hand brush my shoulder.

"We can't save all of them… but we need to try." It was Dutch, I stared at him, and then slowly stood up. I was gonna finish this, and go home. I loaded my shotgun and then continued on the path, I could hear noise in the distance.

"We're close… I know it." I slowly nod back, I keep walking. I then heard… crying. Mickey pointed his SMG.

"Who is it? Show yourself." He yelled. I pointed my gun. I then see, scrap collapsed on someone. I turn on my VISR and I see what was once the wall had collapsed on a man, who was still breathing, and clutched a pistol. I immediately knelt down. His breathing was erratic. He stared at me; his eyes were like fish eyes, with that stupid look…

"I…I'm fine… but someone's trapped under." He said. I then heard more of the crying, it was feminine. Mickey immediately drops his rifle and tries to shift some of the rubble. Dutch replaced me by the man's side as I assisted Mickey.

"Hey, it's gonna be alright…" Dutch said. The man nodded. He then yelped from pain.

"Agh… it hurts." I finally dig out his legs; one of them was pierced by rebar. The lights flicker as he crawls away. I see a large chunk inside him sticking out. I look away, bloods dripping. The man shook his head.

"Help her, she's still in there!" I immediately return to the rubble pile. We all keep digging, until finally the crying is louder. Dutch digs faster, the man crawls by and helps. We finally reached a hand, it was shaking in a sort of spasm. Dutch keeps digging even faster; we then reached a head, poking out. Dutch stared at her. She tried to be less audible; I could see the fear in her eyes. Dutch looks to her.

"You're gonna be alright… okay?" She shakes her head, tears streaming down. I start digging faster with my right 'arm', Dutch slowly holds the woman's hand, and he removes his helmet.

"I'm Corporal Miles… do you have a name?" He asked. The woman breathed then answered.

"Elizabeth." She slowly said. He nodded.

"We're gonna get you out of here Elizabeth… okay?" the woman nods as we continue. The man with the wounded leg kneels to her and puts his hand on her shoulder.

"It's gonna be okay… alright?"

We keep digging, her next arm comes out, and then we found her feet. Finally we got her out. I stared at her; she looked like a new recruit, fresh out. Her legs were broken, and one of her arms. Mickey sighed.

"We need to keep moving… we've done all we can for them." It was true; we gave the woman my morphine for her legs as well as removed the rebar from the man and bandaged his leg. Dutch sighed.

"The flood's around… we can't leave them here." Mickey sighed. Then the private looked to the man.

"Can you walk?" The man looks at him, and then slowly rises up.

"Agh… damn pain… yeah I… agh." I immediately offer him a morphine needle, he takes it and thrusts it into his neck.

"Yeah… I can." The man crouched down and picked up the woman, I could tell they were close, the way her eyes slightly lit up. I gave the man a couple rounds for the pistol and we start walking again, he had a slight stagger in his step, but he was fine. I slowly removed my helmet as I walk beside him, holding her, she looked to me… I slightly smile. She nodded. Maybe I could keep going, for these people, they need me… and I wouldn't let myself slip, if something important's on the line… I won't fail them.

VICTOR

1 HOUR AND 30 MINUTES

The three stared at the strange red screen; it was a giant red eye on some kind of monitor.

"Where did the module go?" It ordered once more, a strange old British voice, but it sounded young. Buck stepped forward.

"We don't know… we're looking for someone." He said.

"Yes, Someone, and someone you have FOUND, Reclaimers." Victor took a step back.

"Guilty Spark spoke of you… humans, causing trouble and rudding up my installation with your blood. I will have none of that." It stated mater-o-factly. Buck shook his head.

"Look, we don't want any trouble, in fact we're working to get out of here…"

"Not fast enough… I can already tell, Eddy Buck." The computer immediately said. Buck stared at it for a moment.

"How did you… know that?" The robot was playing with them, Victor could tell that much.

"There's not much I don't know… Reclaimers… including him." Immediately the monitor played, showing what looked to be an ODST, removing his helmet. The image froze.

"Dante." Victor said. the machine didn't respond.

"He carries the traitor with him." Victor noticed the Blue screen in the picture.

"Who is that?" Victor asked. The screen flickered.

"A child playing with fire, when he is burnt, father takes away the fire." It spoke cryptically. Romeo sighed.

"So you mean… someone who had power, but abused it, and so was punished."

"My my, you reclaimers are clever, much smarter than before." Buck sighed.

"Does he have a name or something?"

"Alcatraz, the modules name is Alcatraz, your soldier is acting as his courier… a pawn to take away my installation."

"Your installation, so you're in charge…" Buck said.

"As I stated before reclaimer." The red screen stated. Buck looked to the others, than sighed. Victor then said.

"Sir, do we have time for this?"

"…No, but we'll follow along, might as well establish a connection between this thing and command." HE said. the bulb slowly answered.

"Yes… give me access to your 'command'." Buck slowly pulled out a data-pad. HE then plugged it into the terminal. The red screen flickered for a moment then stopped.

"Very good…"

"Now as for… Dante…" Buck then said. the machine responded.

"He is the courier… if you want this station's full co-operation; you will bring the AI unit he carries… the child, playing with fire."

"Alcatraz." Romeo said, Victor nodded.

"Yes… Alcatraz…" it didn't seem to like the sound of this AI's name.

"Bring the AI, and I will assist your people in leaving, does that sound fair?" Buck looked down for a moment, then nodded.

"Alright… You got it." Romeo slowly pulled Buck out of the conversation.

"Gunny, don't you think you're getting us in a bit deep?" He asked, Buck shook his head.

"If this thing is, what it says it is, we'll need its help." He said. Romeo nodded. He then faced the monitor.

"You got a name?"

"…Atlas." It slowly answered

_Atlas? Isn't that one of this Roman Gods that held the world on its shoulders? And Alcatraz… that's like a famous prison._

"Very well, I'll take my troopers in to look." He said, they then approached the door, it slowly slid open. Buck slowly walked through, followed by the others.

"I cannot destroy the piece here in the core, but with your help, I'll be able to find the source… and delete it." Atlas said, they were now in a hallway. Romeo sighed.

"So basically… we're on a wild goose chase for some AI?"

"Pretty much." Victor simply answered.

"Don't worry, we'll figure something out." Buck answered back to them. Victor sighed, he slowly looked at his assault rifle, standard issue no silencers or anything. It would make a racket in these rooms. They got to the end of the hallway to find another door, it opened. Victor stepped through first.

"It's clear… and… damn." All the hostiles in the room were dead, he counted four brutes, a couple grunts, and a hunter.

"This would be hard to kill… even for a Spartan." Victor said. Buck sighed.

"Maybe they have some cameras or something, to give us a clear picture." Romeo nodded and knelt down beside the brute.

"Stabbed by… blunt instrument, and that hunter, went straight through the metal casting." HE said. Buck nodded.

"Interrogated?"

"Seems that way… thing committed suicide with a grenade… but it as a couple fresh assault rifle wounds." Romeo said. Victor looked to them.

"Dante was equipped with an assault rifle when he came down here, maybe he's the killer." Buck nodded.

"Maybe." Victor slowly knelt down to another dead brute.

"We should make sure to ask Baker about it, when we reach the surface. " He said, he then stared at it.

"This thing's limbs were snapped… I know James was a regular at the gym but…" Victor trailed off, Buck nodded.

"You're right…" Buck said, he studied the thing. It had blue armor, and its arm was twisted in a strange direction. Victor slowly stared at its primitive ape-like face, it had a shocked expression on its face, like it did not expect to die the way it did… cocky bastards.

"Damn monkey…." Romeo looked to a nearby door.

"Let's keep going." He motioned, Victor held his rifle closely. The three headed to the door, it opened and they walked through into another gray hallway. Buck looked around.

"Hm, clean room, whole facility must be sterilized regularly to prevent flood spread." The hallway was very clear; perhaps the sentinels were very particular to where this place led.

"I think this way leads to the core." Victor said. Buck nodded.

"Or something that's important… double time." They walked down the hallway, and then reached another gray door, Buck stepped closer to it and it slowly opened like one of those doors at a grocery mart. Victor looked through it and saw a bluish tinged room inside, they walked through. There was a strange giant engine like thing in the middle of the room, and it was covered by monitors. On the side was what looked to be a burning heap of… junk? Nearby was a small pool of blood, Victor approached it.

"It's human, I doubt those marines got here… think Dante?" Buck nodded.

"I do, let's take a look around firs-"

"Hold it… reclaimers." A voice immediately said, it came from the monitor attached to the machine, Buck turned.

"What?" The monitor was a different color from Atlas… this must be Alcatraz. This thing was now in charge of this area, but it wasn't the source… but maybe it could help them find the source.

"Who was here?" Buck immediately asked. The fragment did not respond.

"… Atlas sent you… didn't he?"

He? This AI must have been rampant.

"That doesn't matter… from what we understand, we can't do anything to change it…"

"Then why are you here?"

"I… we have a friend we think went through here…"

"…Dante, you're talking about him." Buck looked up.

"Yes…" The monitor started going through a few images, until it showed a picture of an ODST trooper, except his armor was different.

"This was in the security cams, he's gone now…" Victor sighed.

_Why's he telling us this? Isn't this supposed to be a major secret?_

Buck sighed.

"Where did he go?" The monitor simply replied.

"That is… none of your business reclaimer."

"I beg your pardon? That is MY TROOPER, and you think you can just go and-" Romeo slapped him on the back.

"Gunny, we can't scare the robot into telling us." Buck sighed. The machine the continued.

"That footage was erased, in order to preserve the secretive location of the Alcatraz unit, and it's mission." It stated.

"… But aren't you Alcatraz?" Victor asked.

"… Negative, I am a fragment, a pawn in the master's plan… please leave, or else I will have to call the station's sentinels…" Buck looked to Victor and Romeo.

"We're not going to get anything out of it… let's head back up to the surface." Victor slowly looked at his rifle for a moment, what if he shot at the monitor?

"Victor, come on." Buck said leading them out, he slowly followed, Alcatraz did not reply.

"So James inserted him, and just disappeared?" He asked. Buck sighed.

"Seems so, we must of missed him by maybe an hour. We'll find him though." Romeo sighed.

"Maybe… let's just get out of here." The three started walking towards the elevator. The passed by the Red Monitor.

"Did you find what you were looking for?" Atlas asked. Buck shook his head.

"No… not yet anyways."

"Pity… best you find them…"

THE ROOKIE

4 HOURS AFTER MISSION START

James slowly approached the door to the prisoner cells. He could hear covenant talking on the other side, he could hear… brutes.

"Want advice? Hang close to the cover and mess them up." James nodded, he looked into the room, inside was mainly brutes luckily they were either at monitors, or near some sort of… railing. None were looking in his direction, he approached the railing and knelt beside it, it was a gray color and solid, went up to about 2/3rds his height, while half of the brute's height. One was leaning on it. James slowly looked over it, he could see a fairly large drop to the lower levels. He silently stepped around the railing towards the brute and slowly pulled out his knife.

"No, too messy, try forcing it over the edge." James slowly slid the knife back into its slit; he quickly approached the brute and kicked at its leg, catching it by surprise. The thing turned and he immediately pushed it over the side and then heard a satisfying snap down there. The other brute turned around, quickly James got behind cover.

"Now listen in, might be something interesting." Alcatraz said.

"So… traitor, how does it feel to be on the other side of the orders?" a brute asked, James then noticed there was three energy cells, each containing 2 elites.

"You are a fool for following the prophets, they are dead… like all of us will be soon." The elite announced, the brute laughed.

"That is heresy… you had your chance for redemption…" The brute lied. James noticed that this one was dressed in the garb of a chieftain.

"You are far beyond that line… dog." The elite said. The brute commander looked to the other aliens looking his direction, and then immediately showed something, a human pistol.

"I don't like the mouth on this one." He slowly pointed the gun at the elite's head, which was only protected by a bar of energy, like a jail cell, the other occupant in the cell stood back.

"We shall counter heresy… with heresy." The brute said, emphasizing the pistol. The elite stared at him bravely, it had no weapons and no armor, James noticed its strange jaw, it opened and closed like a hinge.

_Probably why we call them hinge-heads_

The chieftain motioned for two others, then the cell deactivated, and the elite exited, staring at the brute chieftain. James saw conviction in its steps.

"Hold him… take him near the hole." The brutes looked to him and then grabbed the elite by both arms and trudged him over to the hole, it was the same one James tripped the other one from before.

_A public execution… to keep the grunts in line I bet… and to keep them entertained._

"I should do something."

"No… it's just one alien, nothing to cry about." Alcatraz simply said. The brute looked among his 'friends'

"Where is Racheet?" He asked, the other ones shook their heads. They looked around, and then noticed the blood from down the hole. The Brutes freaked out, and the elite took this moment to break free. He kicked at one of the brutes, and slammed the other one towards the hole, forcing him to fall. He lunged towards the commander, with fury in his eyes. The commander staggered, trying to hit the elite, but it was too fast, and killed the other brute that was holding it from before. The chieftain pulled out it's hammer and slammed towards the elite, who immediately avoided and caught the hammer, they struggled over it for a moment and then the brute took aim and fired the human pistol at the elite. Cut short by a single gun shot, The elite fell to the ground, the hammer flung into the air, falling helplessly down the hole. The brute stared at the downed elite, and kicked at its body. The elite tossed lifelessly to the side. The grunts stared in horror, watching the brute chieftain.

"I've had ENOUGH setbacks." The brute yelled. He then looked to the others.

"Do any of you wish to join them? No? Then get back to WORK!" he yelled. The others quickly turned and returned to their duties. The brute didn't seem to care about the dead bodies. James looked towards the elite, its hand was over its side, looked dead. He felt his breathing shake himself.

"Something on your mind, Dante?" Alcatraz asked. James turned, almost forgetting Alcatraz was there, he breathed.

"…I sat and did nothing."

"You did what you had to do, and now, they're a lot less of them."

James pondered over this, he did nothing, and the elite rebelled, and that's all Alcatraz could say about it? He slowly stepped towards the corner; the chieftain was now talking to someone on the holo-panel in front of him. The brute sluggishly turned, thinking to hear something.

"Do you see something, chieftain?" a voice asked, it was like a prophet, only different, deeper. The brute turned.

"No…. we will send the data." The brute tossed the gun away, it was too far for James to reach, and it was deep in covenant territory.

"Good, these are trying times, best to get it to me, as soon as you can… may our lords hold you in their favor." The message ended, Alcatraz pondered over this.

"I recorded the message; it came from the city… that's where you're heading next, once you're done here. Subdue that brute, he cannot transmit that data." James acknowledged this and quickly got out of cover, the other members of the covenant were attending to different things, it looks like they were inspecting the building, and the chieftain was still at the console. James approached him, the brute sensed his presence and punched towards him, James ducked, narrowly avoiding it and pushed at the brute's arm, it fell down in a slight trip, the other brutes turned, James immediately threw a plasma grenade towards them and then saw it blow away two of them, and disabled the rest's shields. He quickly fired his plasma rifle towards them, it quickly overheated and he dropped it. He was about to pull out his knife when suddenly something caught him by the legs, and picked him up.

"Agh." He found himself groaning, and then looked to see it was the brute chieftain. He slapped James's helmet to the ground and looked at his face.

"You killed Racheet, you little demon…" James stared at the monster, it's own helmet was removed, he could see scars all the way down its face. James pulled out his knife, and tried to slash him with it, but the brute already stopped his hand, crushed it and then dropped the knife. He felt his knuckles tense up from its grip, the suit did not give him enough.

"You're the reason of all of this…" The brute seemed to take in his options carefully and then saw the hole that went down, James realized the brute was about to throw him in.

_Shit… there has to be a way out of this… DAMN IT_

Alcatraz wasn't with him, he was in the helmet, and there weren't no needles to save him, nothing, he would not survive that drop, the brute was about to drop him, but when James expected him to release… he didn't. He stared at the brute, and then noticed a knife was in lodged in its neck. The thing's eyes trembled all around, the brute seemed like it was about to roar, but then suddenly it's head blew apart as James fell to the ground. He slowly gained his bearings five seconds later where he looked at the brute, the knife was stabbed into the neck, he then noticed a shadow over him… the elite. James found himself staring.

"…" the elite slowly helped him up.

"Thank you… offered me the perfect chance." The elite said with what James expected to be its version of a grin on its 'face'. The elite reloaded the pistol from before.

James then looked and saw that was his knife in the brute's neck. He bent down to pull it out, and returned it to its slit in his armor. He looked around to see that the remaining brutes were either dead, or recently killed, and the unngoy ran away in fear. He and the elite were the only things alive in the room, except the elites in the cells.

"What…. What happened?" James found himself asking, the alien nodded.

"Saved us all, human… gave me the perfect distraction to work with." He said.

"But… you were shot… you were dead… I saw you…" The elite moved its hand to reveal the bullet wound.

"It's… as you humans say, a flesh wound. The brute was too messy to care about dumping my 'corpse' and so I waited for you."

"You knew I was there?"

"Yes… we all did." James found himself in shock, but he slowly sighed. He then heard the station's intercom start.

"This is all very touching… now could you put the damn helmet back on?" Alcatraz immediately ordered. The alien stared at James.

"What was that?" He sighed.

"I er… it's a long story." He hurried over to the helmet.

_Control over this facility my ass_

He slowly slipped the helmet back on.

"Good. You stopped them from transmitting the data, I'll check it for a moment…I see… part of it is just recorded messages from UNSC SAY MY NAME, this station must have intercepted them." James groaned.

"What else?"

"The location of… no how can that…" James found himself tapping his foot. The AI went silent. The forerunners were these great people, but apparently not that great. The alien looked at him.

"I am Saren Vaylor… and you are?" James looked to him.

"James Dante, lance corporal." Saren nodded.

"I was Shipmaster before the schism." He said, his English was excellent. The alien hurried to the monitor and disabled the cells, the elites started walking out of them. Alcatraz was silent, and then added.

"Good, they'll hold a position in the facility; maybe you could take a couple."

"Wait, shouldn't we also set a distress call to the Dawn?"

"…Fine." Alcatraz said. He apparently didn't like the notion of leaving a trail; James's compassion must have infuriated him.

"But next time, we let the aliens rot." The AI answered. James looked to Saren.

"Send a distress signal, and await the UNSC." He said. The Sangheli stared at him.

"Very well… but answer me a question, why are you here anyways?" The alien asked. James looked at it. He then sighed.

"I don't know… not too sure, but I have a job to do, and I have to see it through." He said. The alien looked impressed.

"Before the schism, we all hated you, thought you to be conniving… liars…" James looked down.

"Might still be true… but considering what happened, thank you… human." He said. He then slowly walked towards the terminal, the alien then handed him the pistol, James slowly took it.

_30 rounds, it'll be useful, and this is the model with the scope… score._

Saren worked on the terminal and disabled the cells, The nearby Sangheli exited the cells, and were picking up weapons from the brutes, and another couple went after the grunts.

"I need to get going; I've done all I can." He said. Saren nodded.

"Very well, may the…gods show favor on you…" The alien looked down slightly on this. James nodded.

"Remember that broadcast, about the city."

"Yes, the Minor Prophets must be congregated there, I will mention it." James nodded. Saren then looked at him.

"We will hold a position here, slow them down as you find your exit." James was startled from the Elite's exact prediction, but slowly nodded.

"Alright." He slowly walked towards a nearby elevator.

"So you don't want to take any of them with you?" James sighed.

"Why would I want to do that, when I have you…" Alcatraz slowly responded.

"I can only do so much, but then it's best they don't see how the teleporter works." James approached what looked to be and elevator.

"Go up, it's linked to the core of this facility."

James did so, and the elevator started to move. Saren looked towards him and patted his chest like a drum, James slowly saluted.

"We're going to see him very soon, I bet…" Alcatraz said. James sighed.

"I guess… so what was that data over?"

"It's not important… well it might be, but not in our jurisdiction." He said. James sighed.

"You're worse than ONI…"

"I'm sorry; I do not understand the reference, perhaps another try?" somehow James doubted that.

"Never mind… Anything I should find up here?"

"hm… perhaps an old friend."

ROMEO

2 HOURS AND 30 MINUTES AFTER MISSION START, AT THE TIME THE ROOKIE IS AT 3 HOURS

Buck sighed exiting the elevator, Victor and Romeo followed. He looked towards Victor.

"So how's the life of an ODST?" He asked. Victor sighed.

"Well… it's interesting, but then again, fighting zombies isn't your standard naval mission." Buck chuckled slightly.

"Don't worry Quentin, new to me too."

"And I'm just having a picnic." Romeo found himself saying. He looked and saw a couple marines pass by them and go down the elevator.

Romeo looked to see Baker's group, they were talking to someone, near the entrance of the citadel.

"So he's alive?"

"Yes, sir… from what we saw, about an hour or two ago."

"Well I'll be damned." A very familiar voice added in.

"Hello sir." Buck saluted. Sargent Jonson turned to them. Buck slowly removed his helmet, along with the other two. Romeo clutched his.

"ONI got the message from this… Atlas, so me and a couple others came down, I think an ONI officer is going down right now to see the module." He said, a fresh Sweet Williams Cigar in his hand.

"We chatted with it for a bit and then it demanded we send someone down. So the Oni officer is going down with a group of marines with flamethrowers, and I was told to ask these marines some questions." He said. The man took a drag on the cigar. Romeo thought to the ONI agent going down to meet Atlas.

_This is an ONI wet dream, that AI's gonna twist them around it's finger… well it's equivalent to a finger._

Johnson smiled to see Victor and patted him on the back. Victor nodded.

"Not my kind of work, to be sure… but it's something, while MC is busy doing… well you know." He said. Buck nodded.

"Considering the drama from today." Buck found himself saying, Johnson chuckled a bit.

"Yeah, something like that." Romeo looked towards him.

"Sir, I need to ask a couple… questions, about that drama." Johnson looked at him.

"Alright, ask, and I'll do my best to answer." Buck looked to Romeo.

"According to your report, there was COM chatter between Faire, and Dante… could I hear it?" Johnson looked at him.

"They didn't ask for it, probably didn't think it was important… but if you have a use for it…" Johnson's hand went towards his earpiece.

"Go ahead." Romeo took the ear piece. He slowly fastened it to his ear.

_Getting myself too deep… ah fuck I live for this stuff._

He heard a sort of static; he then set it to around the time it was used a couple hours ago.

"_Anne, it's okay… I chose this." _James Dante's voice immediately said, he could hear a slight sobbing.

"_You son of a bitch…" _her voice answered back, she was upset… but then again, she did lose her arm.

"_I need to do this… save more lives…"_

"_But what about yourself? You're breaking your promise!" _

"_If I have too… Then I'm sorry Anne…" _HE could tell someone was crying on one of the ends.

"_Anne… I need to do this… I can't let them die." _

"_I know you do… I love you…" _she said.

"_I know… That's why doing this is so hard for me."_ The recording ended. Romeo slowly removed the earpiece. Johnson turned to him.

"Find anything useful?" Johnson asked. Romeo sighed handing it back.

"I don't know, I'll need to think about it." Kojo said sighing. Johnson re-applied it to his ear.

"Well aren't you just deep." He said. Romeo nodded.

"Comes with the job." Johnson nodded then returned to Barker's team. The three ODSTs walked towards the exit of the citadel.

"So what was all that about, Romeo?" Buck asked.

"I'm just curious, trying to understand, this… drama." He said. Buck nodded.

"Alright, I'll call in to Puzzler, and then we'll wait for the rest." Romeo nodded towards his CO. It started feeling like this day would never end. He thought back to the recording.

_SO basically she found the most in-opportune time to wake up and scarred herself mentally because of it… tough._

He looked towards the wreckage that was the SAY-MY-NAME. He could see small fires stretched across it, and teams of marines going inside to help and rescue. The fires highlighted the fact that it was night.

_This day will never end._

(Okay, I feel pretty good about this chapter, I introduce another new character into the story, Saren Vaylor, and he'll come back in a couple chapters. Next up is chapter 5, which will be pretty much the big battle for the UNSC Say-My-Name, between the covenant, the UNSC, and the Flood, which will feature another character you might think is dead, I'll try to get it out soon. Please Review and tell me what you think of this story so far, SERIOUSLY, review, I love feedback (the constructive kind).)


	5. Chapter 5

FAIRE

2 HOURS AFTER MISSION START

I keep stepping around the wreckage. We found a place to drop those two off, they were gonna be alright. Elizabeth stared towards me as we walked away.

Mickey stepped beside me as Dutch kept looking around us.

"So, what do you think of that recruit… Victor?" Mickey asked. I didn't reply, I didn't know him to begin with… wasn't he some soldier James met up with? The lights around us flickered and I felt myself almost trip over some torn open wires. I caught myself in mid fall. Dutch seemed to pay no attention, and then answered.

"Victor? Er, I guess he's alright… he and Romeo get along well." My helmet bobbed up and down as I walked around the debris. I looked to a nearby terminal. It was broken but it was frozen on a screen map of the ship. Mickey walked to it, and traced his fingers around, he seemed to be messing with the map in his helmet. The panel kept frizzing from time to time. I sighed. Mickey looked back at me, then back towards the map.

"We're getting close to the bridge. From there we can hopefully fix up the PA system and message all aboard the ship… or whatever it is now." Dutch and I both nodded as we started walking again. The flood was here, but so was Covenant that got onboard. We finally reached a door, it looked very sturdy… and immovable, Mickey pushed on it slightly. And then groaned a bit.

"Built to last… we gotta open this thing." I stared at it, and then I see a nearby terminal. I sheepishly walked over to it and start typing.

COMMAND CONSOLE- OPEN D36A

It started compiling my request and then it answered back.

INSUFFICIENT POWER

I banged lightly on it and sighed. Dutch looked at it.

"Hm, you know I think we could just break this thing and rig it to open the door." He said, I nodded and knelt down to the screen.

"Alright, remove the screws holding the panel in place. I look at the screws; they were flat headed, very old design. I pick up a small piece of metal that fell from the wall and fitted it in; I started turning the metal in a counter-clockwise fashion. I did it with my right 'hand' the one that could actually turn screws from these things. Mickey seemed to be getting antsy. I then heard something from the other doors leading to the side. Dutch sighed.

"That can't be good." He said. It kept getting closer. Dutch prepped his rifle. Mickey looked to me.

"Work faster!" I obliged and finally open it up. From inside I see an assortment of wires. Dutch looked at it.

"Pull the red ones, and lead them into the dark green." I nodded, I used the metal to cut the red wires, and then I made a slight incision into the green ones. From there I lead the red wires in.

"Good, now see the blue ones? Do the same with them and the yellow." Suddenly I hear shots fire. Mickey aims his rifle towards the intruders, to be none other than Covenant brutes who had just awoken.

"Shit." Dutch slowly said. He fired his SMG on towards them, one fell over dead, probably due to a destroyed shielding unit. I was just about to get out, but Dutch shook his head.

"No, Mickey, cover her!" he yelled. The brutes were getting closer. I worked faster on the wires, it all felt really clumsy in my right arm. Mickey pulled the shotgun holstered from my back when his clip ran out. He fired once, then got closer. I connected the wires but nothing happened. Dutch stared quickly, and sighed.

"I… shit… must be very old or-" I immediately punched my right arm into the console with a slight groan. A green light started on the door and it began to open, I removed my 'hand' from the console, it left a large dent. Dutch nodded towards the door.

"Go in, go, go!" he yelled. I went through, followed by Mickey, and then by Dutch, who immediately dug his hand into the wires and started something, causing the doors to close. He immediately went through, I heard him drop something as the doors closed. Then I heard an explosion from a grenade blow. I breathed, sitting back, the room had red lights on everywhere in it, must have been from the emergency power. I then realized that this was the bridge.

Mickey removed his helmet breathing.

"Wow… Dutch, that was… great." He said. Dutch removed his helmet.

"Yeah… the wires messed me up, but hell… its fine." He said patting me on the side. I nod to them and look to Mickey. He looks at me… I noticed something was not in his hands… a certain, close combat weapon… one I was considered proficient in using. I slowly stood back up.

"Agh… crap, I left it in there." He said. I stare at him for a moment. Then for the first time in hours I start to talk.

"Left? Left it in there? Are you joking?" I find myself asking. I removed my helmet and stared at him.

"Mickey, the only weapon I have now is a pistol, because you left my damn SHOTGUN in there? Are you joking me?" I asked. Dutch slowly nodded.

"I'll go scout ahead, while you two er… hold the fort." He slowly walked away towards the bridge, obvious he wasn't in the mood for our bullshit.

"Well… sorry, okay? I just left the gun and…"

"Because you didn't bother to reload when you had the chance?" I asked, he sighed.

"Well I… yeah." I groan.

"What kind of IDIOT, leaves the god-damn shotgun in there because we were in a rush?" he didn't back down.

"Well what kind of bitch has a mental breakdown because of some guy?" he asked. I stepped back, staring at him. Bitch? Since when the hell did he cuss? I was in a slight shock, I didn't have a mental breakdown… what the fuck did he know about me? I slowly tried to find words, something snappy and rude… but I couldn't, and then slowly said.

"He was your best friend." He slowly shook his head, and turned around.

"Still is, you're the one thinking he's dead… doesn't explain why you wear the ring though?" I stared at him.

"I…I don't know…" I looked at my right hand, why am I wearing it? Did it remind me of him? I sighed then stared at him.

"Give me your BR." I then said, he stared at me, then slowly pulled it off his back and handed it towards me. I took it. He still had his SMG.

"We'll… we'll talk about this later." I finished, and slipped back on my helmet. Mickey did the same. I looked at the door and slowly listened in closely. I could hear a slight scratching on the other side. The sense of animosity in the room slowly dissipated.

"I think the brutes are dead, we'll need to find another path on our way out…" I slowly said. Mickey nodded.

"Yeah… but why was it shut in the first place?"

"…Good question." I looked around the area, it was part of the bridge, it seemed alright, red lights and everything, I saw the ship consoles in the back, most of them seemed broken, or on fire.

"…As well as… there should have been more bodies, this place just went through hell an-" I immediately hear footsteps.

Suddenly I feel something pressed to my helmet. I froze, quickly an arm raps around my neck. I drop the BR. Another arm then pulls my right arm behind me. I'm shaking, I couldn't tell if I was afraid, or if it was this lunatic. Mickey immediately points his SMG.

"Get back!" my 'captor' yelled. Mickey pointed his still, my visor was de-polarized and I mouthed towards him to shoot.

"Put it down… or I blow a hole through her pretty little skull."

Mickey slowly obliged, he dropped it to the side. And slowly raised his hands in the air. The lunatic kicked it away, keeping a grip on me.

"Hey, calm down man… we're all on the same side." I heard rugged breathing from him. I heard him mutter something. I immediately felt my heartbeat increase, this guy sounded crazy.

"I've… I've seen things… I… stay back, I'll do it!" he yelled. Mickey nodded.

"I bet you have… but what good would killing her serve?" Mickey slowly stepped towards him.

"I mean it… I'll fucking do it!" the lunatic yelled. I felt myself gasping.

"There's… no need for that… just let her go… and tell us what's wrong…" Mickey stepped closer. I mouthed for him to stay back. Mickey steps close enough that the psychopath is about to press the trigger. I closed my eyes, not bearing to watch this was it… 1, 2, 3.

I hear a gun fire and he immediately fell to the ground, on my knees. My left arm kept feeling around myself. I slapped of the helmet, breathing in deeply. I then looked back to see the nut, he was on the floor, making a choking motion.

"Bastard…" I muttered. I then looked to see who fired the round. I saw Dutch, along with a man I didn't know. He hurried to me.

"Are you alright?" he offered me his hand, I refused and stood up.

"I'm fine." I scooped my helmet up off the ground. Dutch nodded walking closer. He patted me on the plates. I turned back to Mickey, who slowly grabbed his SMG, and putted it to his side. I finally then look at the strange man; he had graying hair, but a rather strong looking physique. I looked down at the dead man, he got shot through the throat, and I looked at his face… looked crazy, his eyes had that look to it, bloodshot. Dutch looked around us.

"Glad you guys are getting along, this is Commander Cox… boss of the entire mission now."

THE ROOKIE

5 HOURS FROM MISSION START

James breathed in as he rose in the elevator. The elites would be alright down there. He looked up to see a large bit of distance between the top and where he was.

"Old friend?"

"Yes… it's high time you meet the old 'employer'." Alcatraz said. The elevator kept moving, James looked to the side to see sentinels rising as well. They seemed organized, but had a red color to parts of them. He looked up to the top to see he was almost there, the elevator finally came to a stop.

He stepped off of the platform to see he was now in a wide open generator room, like the one back in the citadel. However this one lacked all the monitors, there was a singular terminal in the middle of the room. James clutched the pistol and slowly stepped through; the walls were gray and dull. Around were large rectangular windows. He took another step and turned to see the elevator go back down. He sighed, his ride was gone. He observed the room, pointing his pistol, nothing was here. He heard a voice then.

"Put down the weapon, that won't be needed." James stared at it, a computer monitor connected to the terminal, this one was red, and had a distinct fore-runner symbol on it. On opposed to Alcatraz, who was blue.

"Alcatraz… it's been too long." The AI wasn't talking to him.

"Atlas…" His suit's speakers immediately spoke out. Even though he couldn't see any faces, he could tell there was bad blood between these two. This, Atlas… he was the one charge, the employer, the boss. James looked at his hands to immediately see Alcatraz was messing with the shields, to make them show up in a blue color… He paid no attention to it when he stared at the screen, he stepped towards it, pistol in his right hand.

VICTOR

3 HOURS 20 MINUTES AFTER MISSION START

Quentin Victor sat in one of the seats of the pelican; he slowly removed his helmet, staring at it. Puzzler and Buck were busy exchanging information.

"The material inside the ship is too thick to scan, all this tech ONI gives us, and it can't do shit." The man sighed. Buck nodded.

"Hopefully we'll find some survivors… we have to." He slowly said, very solemnly. Victor looked to him. The man recently got pierced by a turret; it was hard to see how he could hide his emotions like that. Considering him and Dare's… relationship, he didn't know how he could keep it together. Romeo looked to Victor.

"Don't bother him… he's had a hard day." Victor sighed then slowly looked to Romeo.

"You know, I heard rumors… aren't you supposed to be the ass-hole of the group?" he asked randomly, Romeo laughed, removing his helmet, and setting it beside him on the seat.

"I tend to… sometimes." He simply answered. Buck nodded to the pilot and then sat down facing towards them.

"Like I said before, we're gonna wait till we got contact from the ship, or our troopers come out, otherwise if it takes too long, we'll head in… and take a 'look around'." He said. Romeo nodded.

"Good, I do want to try and get my stuff." He said. Victor chuckled slightly.

"I don't have too; I was put on the Dawn." He said. Romeo rolled his eyes.

"Great to know one of us is having a good day." He said. Victor slowly sighed, and nodded.

"Well… I always wanted to be a trooper you know, helljumpers… but we haven't been doing much today, seems more like… half assed detective work." He sighed. Romeo nodded.

"This isn't a real ODST mission… command just wants to find a place to put us, so we don't stir up trouble… because we tend to do that."

"Trouble, yeah we've definitely got that." The pilot, Tom Kingsly immediately said.

"What?" Buck asked, putting his hand on the side of the seat. The pelican started moving.

"Covenant's coming through, just over that ridge." Victor looked out to see troops moving out from the entrance of the ridge.

"Damn it." He heard himself utter.

"Why's the covenant here?" Romeo asked. Buck sighed.

"I think they want another shot at taking the citadel, don't want to wait for their journey… Puzzler, notify UNSC forces, we can't-"

"Already ahead of you." The Pilot said and quickly messaged in.

"High command, we've got hostiles coming in over the ridge, the one overlooking the citadel… how should I proceed?" Slowly an answer came.

"We sent in troops, open fire on the hostiles, we can NOT let them into the citadel." The pilot nodded, and started hovering the pelican towards them. Victor looked out the cockpit to see ten other pelicans doing the same. Victor grabbed for a rifle. Romeo quickly putted his helmet on.

"You wanted action? You got it."

DUTCH

3 HOURS 10 MINUTES AFTER MISSION START

"Is that right, Commander Keyes is dead?" Cox asked. Dutch slowly nodded.

"Sad to say, yes… what about the crew? We ran into a couple survivors, but not that many bodies." He said. The man nodded.

"We definitely have survivors, but many wounded. They're in the room over there." He pointed out to the side. Faire stared at it for a moment. Dutch then looked to Cox.

"Haven't any of you try to jump ship?" Cox shook his head.

"I'm afraid we can't risk sending others out when there's so many wounded in here, some might have made it out though." Dutch nodded.

_Great to hear there are some survivors._

"By the way." Faire spoke up. "Is Veronica Dare among the living?" she asked, slightly casual. Cox looked at the marine for a moment, and then sighed.

"I don't know… she was with us when we crashed, but I took a nasty hit and was knocked out… not sure where she could be."

"Okay…" Faire trailed off. Cox seemed to be the type that knows something they didn't… or it seemed that way at least. Dutch looked around the bridge; it was a complete mess, overturned chairs, fires. He doubted too many people could had made it. It seemed finally a couple survivors were trying to put the fires out.

"Commander, with all due respect… what the hell happened?" Dutch asked. Cox looked at him, he slowly nodded, looking away.

"I'm not sure… we were hacked by some kind of… AI, fore-runner or something, it used our ship to locate something, and then crashed it. I believe our ONI officers would understand more, so it'd be best to ask them." Mickey looked to him.

"But sir, aren't you ONI?"

"…I am, but I'm not an engineer. They have a better grasp on what hapenned." He said. Dutch tried to take this in.

_An AI did this? That's insane._

"Alright, we'll make sure to, we just need to re-activate the PA system and message the survivors." He said. Cox nodded and led them towards it. Dutch could tell he was hiding something.

"So, I take it you would also like to locate any belongings you might have on this ship?" he asked. Faire slowly nodded. He knew quite a bit about them if he knew they were assigned to this ship.

"That would be nice, sir." The man scratched his head.

"Very well, when you've taken care of the PA system, I grant you clearance to locate your belongings, if the rooms in question are still put together." He said. Dutch crouched down to the PA system, it seemed dented quite a bit.

"Alright, I'll need to open it up and take a look. Commander, feel free to answer my comrades' questions." He said. Dutch started opening the Metal Box. Cox turned to Mickey and Faire.

"Alright, shoot." Faire stepped forward.

"Sir… why did that… nutjob try to kill me?" Faire asked out of the blue. Cox sighed.

"I don't know, I think he got infected by the flood spore."

"Flood spore… doesn't that… change you?" Cox looked towards.

"Yes, but in very small dosages, it'll affect your brain… make you lash out, like he did… The UNSC had just developed special medication for this, takes care of small flood infections. We have some in the ship… others may be infected, anyone without suits like yours…" Faire nodded. Mickey then stepped up.

"What about you sir?" He asked, the man sighed.

"During training, I received er… special augmentations to counter flood spore, such as Johnson did." He said. Dutch kept working, he sighed under his breath.

_Isn't that kind of stuff classified?_

Dutch kept working on the wires, and then sighed.

"Like the door, not enough power, we'll need someone to restart the fusion reactors… or something for a steady spree of power." He said. Cox nodded.

"The reactors are close by, I'll go down and take a look." He said. Dutch shook his head.

"Take someone with you, sir… you don't appear equipped to handle this kind of job… due to certain circumstances." Dutch said, the man sighed.

"I know this ship like the back of my hand, but if I must, private Crespo, come along." He said. Mickey slowly obliged.

"Alright sir." Dutch looked at him.

"Anyone else up here?" he asked. Cox looked at him.

"Some other personnel should be around, secure the area while we take care of the reactors." He said. Dutch nodded.

"Yes sir…" Cox nodded, and then started walking towards a ladder leading down. Mickey looked at Dutch.

"Aw come on, I don't want to babysit some ONI squid." Dutch sighed.

"What he says goes, he's all we have, so go down there, and no bitching." He said. Mickey looked at him for a moment, and then slowly nodded his head.

"Fine… "He then looked at Faire.

"… Really you have the easy job, we have to look for the survivors… and besides, this would be a good time to ask some questions we might have missed." She said. Mickey nodded his head.

"Crespo, come on." Cox ordered. The private quickly hurried to the ladder. Dutch looked to Faire.

"Well, just you and me… come on, let's take a look around." Dutch said. Faire slowly followed.

MICKEY

3 HOURS AND 30 MINUTES AFTER MISSION START

Michael Crespo fell from the ladder to the ground he stuck the landing, but almost immediately he felt the ship shake suddenly from something outside. He caught himself on the ladder. He looked to Commander Cox who seemed unshaken.

"What was that?" The man sighed.

"Must have been some kind of anomaly…Something's happening outside." He said… like he could tell something's wrong.

"What do you mean?" Mickey asked, Cox looked towards him.

"Like a covenant attack." Mickey nodded looking down. Wars over and they still have to deal with Covenant. The two kept moving at a brisk pace. They entered a hallway structure, it was a lot like the rest of the ship, broken. Cox seemed strangely silent, Mickey looked to the commander and then asked.

"So sir… is there anything you need to know?" he asked as they walked through the hallway.

"Yes actually… what is the board's plan to deal with this… 'outbreak'?"

"Well sir, command has approved of Spartan 117's plan to destroy the ark by activating a halo ring that appeared outside the ark after he stopped the rings from firing." He said. Cox nodded, quickly taking this in.

"I see, so we have been given the derivative to leave the ARK before 'said ring' fires." He quickly said.

"…Yes. We have a day to 'pack up and go home'." Cox looked to Mickey and nodded.

"A day? This threat must be serious; I remember the reports of flood back in Africa." Cox said. Mickey nodded.

"Yeah, I heard it was crazy, the SAY-MY-NAME was being serviced then… barely got through the portal." Cox nodded.

"As for the chief's plan… seems interesting, I'll make sure to ask for specifics from command." He said. Mickey nodded, he then remembered something.

"We won't have contact with the chief for a while; he's busy trying to retrieve the cortana module." Cox nodded.

"Cortana? The Ai modeled from Halsey? The chief's going straight through High-Charity to find an AI?" He asked. Mickey nodded. The man seemed somewhat familiar with the chief and Cortana, or this Halsey person. They kept walking through the hallway.

"Sir, what if we can't start up the fusion core?" Cox looked at him.

"We have to, the PA system may be important yes, but do you realize what will happen if the covenant IS attacking? We need the fusion core restarted so we can use the ship's guns."

FAIRE

3 HOURS AND 30 MINUTES

I looked to the ladder Mickey started crawling down and then I feel the ground shake from beneath me.

"Where's the tremors coming from?" I ask, Dutch looks at me, then shrugs.

"Could be a covenant attack, doesn't matter so long as we have a job to do." He simply said, I sighed.

"Yeah…" We hurried around the room to find ways out, we checked by the main door first, it was shut tight, just as we left it. Then we hurried to the windows and found them to be submerged in dirt from the ARK, luckily they were 5 feet thick and so weren't broken. We then checked the vents… not a thing moving.

"Well, that's about it, let's see those survivors." Dutch said. I nod. We walked over to a nearby room, and slowly look in. I turned my head to see the contents of the room, medical cots everywhere, people dying, or watching others die. I feel a slight twist of despair for these people. I slowly kneel down by one of the cots, the caretaker looked to me.

"He had a concussion, pretty damn hard." HE said. I look at him.

"That can't be good…" he nods.

"Say, who are you?" the man asked, I sigh.

"I'm Lance Corporal Faire, we're from the Dawn." I answered.

"We?" Just then Dutch walks in.

"Hey there." The man looks at him, then sighed.

"It's about time command does something about us, what's going on?" he asked.

"They've issued an order for all UNSC forces to leave the ARK, we were sent in to spread that message, once you're out of this wreck, pelicans should be waiting for yo-"suddenly the ship shook. I then fell back from the sudden shake; the others did the same, and hurried to secure their patients. Dutch looked out the room towards the door into the bridge, something was hitting it.

"We have bigger problems." Dutch immediately said. By now the other members of the crew were looking to Dutch, the tall man in the helljumper armor. I looked to the door, something was banging on it, and hard… either covenant or flood… or both.

"Everyone who can fight, grab a weapon." Dutch immediately ordered, the crew members obeyed and got up, they picked up nearby pistols and assault rifles that were already on the bridge. The people were quick to obey the helljumper and got ready for the door to be breached, I looked to Dutch.

"Think Cox and Mickey are alright?" he sighed.

"Probably, it's not like the fusion core is linked to the main hallway, there's only a handful of areas that lead to it." He said. He then handed me a pistol.

"You'll need a sidearm." He simply said, I slowly took it with my metal arm and then putted it in a holster on my waist. The BR was on my back.

"Thanks." The ship shook again. I immediately turned.

"If you have NO combat experience, then take care of the wounded." I ordered. A couple of the men and women grabbing guns sighed and returned to their 'patients'. I put my hand to my back and pull out the Battle Rifle I took from Mickey. I quickly loaded it. Dutch looked at it.

"Kinda reminds me back when we had DMRs." I nodded.

"Those were the days, now its guns for trigger happy nut jobs, only a Spartan could keep this steady." I joked. Dutch nodded. I quickly headed to the bridge and approached the door; there was a bag of grenades nearby.

_So much for Safety._

I clipped the grenades to my belt and got behind cover, the door was shaking, and then suddenly a small hole appeared. I immediately hear something, I recognize it to be the COM unit installed into my helmet. Over the COM we hear a small bit of static, and Dutch started speaking into his unit.

"Command, can you hear me?" nothing, I sighed.

_Why all of a sudden does it work now?_

"Try contacting nearby forces."

"Alright… we got gunny." He said. I nodded.

"Ask what's going on." I found myself saying. Dutch quickly started the link.

"Buck, you there? What's going on?" The man asked.

BUCK

3 HOURS AND 48 MINUTES FROM MISSION START

"What's going on? The god damn Covenant brought an army to try and take back the citadel!" Eddy Buck yelled into the COM.

"Alright, well we've got news." Dutch said. Buck sighed; he sat in the Pelican, at a turret.

"Kay, what do you got?"

"The commander, Cox is alive. He headed down to restart the fusion reactor." Faire said. Buck breathed in. Luke Cox from what he understood had quite the history, was a high ranking member of ONI, but never progressed past commander; he could have easily been captain… Might be something he should ask in the future.

"I bet Parangosky will be happy with that, is Veronica alive?" he quickly asked. Dutch sighed.

"We don't know… but we have more problems, something is breaching the ship." HE said.

"…Yeah, some of the Covenant's actually trenching into the ship to avoid pelican fire." Buck simply said. He fired on a wraith; both Romeo and Victor were firing sniper rifles into straggler groups.

"Can you send any help?"

"… I don't know, if the Coveys get into the citadel, its game over… I don't think we could pull another miracle." Buck said. He fired toward another wraith tank.

"What about the flood?" Faire asked.

"Absolutely not." Buck quickly replied. She didn't answer back. Dutch then sighed.

"Alright, well just so you know, we could make this worth your while, when Cox and Mickey restart the fusion engines, I bet we can use the ship's guns on the outside Covenant, and we're talking MAC guns, not turrets, really heavy stuff." Buck banged his fist on a nearby poll breathing slowly.

"…Bargaining with your CO… fine, I'll send you some back-up." Buck voiced, he ended the message, and then voiced to command the situation.

"No can do, gun-Ray Sargent, it seems there already is a team going inside, Johnson's with them."

"Johnson? Wasn't he in the citadel?"

"When they exited they were over-run by covenant, they're inside the ship now."

"…Okay." Buck sighed.

_If Johnson's going in, that should be enough._

So far they were doing well to hold the covenant off, they were crazed and dis-organized. He looked down to see more pelicans lowering towards the ship. Suddenly the pelican fell apart in green fire.

"What the hell was that?" Buck immediately asked. Victor focused his sniper rifle.

"That looked like fuel rod fi-… fuck." He immediately said.

"What?"

"Seems they upgraded their arsenal, those AA wraiths over there, it's continuous fire for ten seconds." Buck stared at the aforementioned Wraith. Usually AA wraith fire lasted for maybe three seconds, and shot a couple large globs of plasma, this thing kept shooting them.

"Kingsly! Evasive maneuvers!" Buck yelled.

"You think?" The pilot immediately started moving the pelican around, avoiding. Romeo kept firing towards the wraiths, readjusting his aim. The covenant weren't making this easy. Troops were scattered all across the area.

"We can't work like this, we need to find a safe place, or take out those wraiths." Victor sighed.

"Maybe we should switch to rockets." Immediately another Pelican fell to the ground.

"How'd they upgrade this quickly?" Buck asked.

"Hell if I know." Romeo said. he nodded to Victor and grabbed a rocket launcher. Buck kept firing towards one of the new and improved wraiths, it seemed to take damage better. Finally after about thirty seconds it fell apart from the turret fire.

"Yeah, how many more?" he asked. Romeo fired a rocket towards another one.

"Like six."

MICKEY

4 HOURS

The ship shook again as private Crespo and Commander Cox approached a door.

"Alright, the fusion core is through here, let's make haste." He said and approached the door.

"How do we open it?" Mickey asked. Cox looked at it, then guestured towards Mickey.

"I think we can open it ourselves, shouldn't be too hard." He said. Mickey stared at him, the door seemed rather large.

"Sir? I really doubt our chances." He said. Cox nodded.

"Might as well try." He slowly approached one side of the door and started pulling hard. Mickey stared as the door slowly gave way and moved. Cox breathed, and then pushed forward the door opened, Mickey found himself staring.

"Commander… how did you do that?" The man looked at him.

I just started opening it, then it fell into the old groove, I simply pushed. Come on now." He said walking through. Mickey walked followed through, and tried to close the door behind him, it wouldn't budge.

"Must be locked in place, come on." Cox said. Mickey nodded and followed, they were now in a large room. The walls were streamed with electrical wiring.

"So this is the power room?"

"Yes, and over there is the core of it all." Cox pointed towards the middle of the room, a large generator stood there.

"Not like your standard drive, it was upgraded while being serviced… if the Covenant start activating the rings in the citadel, we set this off, and we'll be done." He simply said. The finalty in his voice bothered Mickey.

"You mean like in the chief's report, how he and Cortana blew one of the rings up." Cox nodded.

"Yes, now come on, we need to get this thing started." Mickey nodded and then looked at the machine.

"…Covenant Tech." Or it atleast 'seemed' that way, it was a strange looking orb held in place by a couple steel pipes, two large arcs that looked to be meant to rotate stood still.

"You could say… ONI wanted a ship that was compatible with Covenant parts for this mission." He said. Mickey looked to the commander.

"How do we start it?" He asked, Cox looked at him, the ship immediately shook.

DUTCH

3 HOURS 53 MINUTES

"You heard him." Dutch said, Faire nodded, and then turned towards the door, something hit it again, and part of the door broke off and fell to the ground. He looked through to see a piece of something vomit colored.

"Flood… conserve your ammo." He said. Faire nodded. Finally the door opened and hell broke loose. Flood combat forms rushed towards Dutch, who quickly fired into the group and avoided them. A carrier jumped towards Faire who shot quickly, it turned to dust. Dutch looked nearby to see how much of a losing fight this was. The flood were vicious, and most of these people never fought them.

"Don't let them get to the wounded, it'll fuck em up!" he yelled. The marines obliged and fought with more tenacity. The flood were armed with different weapons per form. One had two energy swords, another had an assault rifle. The energy sword carrying one rushed towards Dutch who fired into and sidestepped its slash, the thing returned with a lunge Dutch then blocked with his rifle. The super-heated plasma slowly started burning through the rifle. Dutch breathed and then grabbed the flood's arm holding the other sword and slashed through its other one before it could get him with it. He caught the energy sword and then slashed through it. The thing died, and he now had an Elite energy sword, well two of them.

"Faire, you doing good on ammo?" he asked. The girl nodded.

"Catch, it'll help out." He tossed the other energy sword switched off. The girl caught it and putted it to her belt. Other UNSC soldiers kept firing on the flood, throwing grendes towards them. The room was filled with Smoke.

Dutch looked at the energy sword and immediately slashed through a couple combat forms. His vision as obscured by the Smoke, he used his VISR to see through it. He cutted down another combat form. He was starting to realize why the Elites liked this so much.

"Don't have too much fun." Faire Chided. Dutch groaned.

"Right…" he quickly slashed through another flood combat form, and then looked to the door, bullets rang from back there and the flood around the doors fell. Dutch looked out.

_Seems a bit too uniform to be flood, and I don't think they're all team killers._

The people in question were marines from the Dawn. After a moment the fighting settled, the marines stepped towards him, the leader looked to him.

"You Dutch?" he asked. Dutch nodded.

"You?"

"Baker, we met with your CO in the Citadel." The man said. Dutch nodded.

"How long did it take you to get to us?" HE asked. The marine sighed.

"Hm, ten minutes, we were driven in by Covenant. God-damn warzone." Baker answered. Dutch nodded.

"Well, Gunny promised us help, and we got it. Hold a perimeter; we'll need to treat our wounded." Dutch said.

"Good plan, soldier." A familiar voice said. Dutch looked towards the doorway to see a black-skinned marine walk onto the bridge.

"Sargent Johnson?" The man nodded.

"I'm in command for the time being, from what I saw; this ship is full of Covenant." He said. Dutch nodded.

"And flood too." Faire added. Johnson looked to her, and nodded.

"Tell me the situation, as Baker said we were forced in by the covenant." He said. Dutch looked to him.

"My team made it here, and then we ran into Cox, he's with private Crespo down in engineering starting up the fusion reactors." He said. Johnson lit a cigar.

"I see, so when they get the power back on, the MAC guns will be available for the outside." Johnson said. Dutch coughed from the sudden smoke.

"Yeah, pretty much." He said, Faire spoke up.

"How bad is it outside?" Johnson turned to her, taking a drag on his cigar.

"It's hell, but not too bad considering when the prophet was alive, the covenant's disadvantaged, so they fighting more like guerrilla groups, and they upgraded their kit." Johnson said. Faire sighed.

"Cox and Crespo better get that reactor online."

VICTOR

4 HOURS

Quentin Victor leaned on the side of the pelican. It was a total warzone outside, the covenant now had air support. The pelican shook, Kingsly swore under his breath and avoided another bolt of plasma. Since they lost their turret, Buck took up a new place beside the pilot's cockpit. He put a hand on the chair.

"How close are they?" he asked. Kinsley didn't even look at him.

"Too close for comfort, they now have banshees, and we need to stop them soon, before they get ideas about crashing into the citadel." He said. Buck sighed.

_Just like Keyes_

"Wasn't the grave-mind there?" The pilot sighed.

"Dunno, not important-" The pelican shook.

"They took out our back thrusters!" The pelican teetered and Victor slid to the back of the cock-pit, holding onto the railing. He felt the wind whip at his feet.

"FUCK!" he yelled, Romeo quickly putted down his sniper rifle and hurried to help his comrade up.

"Come on, damn you've taken on some weight."

"Shut up!" Victor found himself yelling. The Pelican got back into control and Victor got to his feet. He slowly looked out. The covenant were winning now, the new wraith tanks, plus air support made short work of the UNSC forces. But they hadn't breached the citadel yet.

"This is hopeless, we really pissed them off." Victor said. Romeo nodded.

"Maybe… Gunny, any info on that reac-" The ship shook again, Romeo clutched the side of the pelican. Buck shook his head.

"Get to shooting, marine!" he yelled. Victor quickly grabbed the sniper rifle and fired to the best of his ability. four Banshees grouped up on them, firing into the pelican, Victor and Romeo fired three times each, Victor hit one twice while Romeo hit another one once, the rounds went straight through one of the banshees and it fell apart while the other was damaged, they kept up their barrage on the pelican, Victor saw the lights on the cockpit flash, from the quick loss of power.

"I can't keep this up forever!" Tom Kingsly yelled. Victor sighed firing his sniper rifle, they had quickly ran out of rockets to fire. Romeo looked at them, then at the bahsees which were literally a couple feet away and firing. Romeo looked towards the banshee

"…Maybe I could-" Buck shook his head. Romeo looked at him.

"No, that's suicide, I'm not losing any more to this… ARK." Buck said. Victor looked at him.

_What is he saying?_

Buck immediately dropped his weapon and ran out of the cockpit towards the banshees' midair.

"That's why I'm going!"

BUCK

4 HOURS, 7 MINUTES

_This, was suicide._

Eddy Buck thought this as he jumped from the cockpit of a pelican onto one of the banshees following. Why the hell was he doing this? Well it was a losing battle, but suicide isn't the answer… well maybe not full suicide. He landed on one of the banshees, it's purple sheen shone brightly, as it hit him in the gut. He breathed, feeling his grip weaken and opened up the back, there a covenant Brute wearing somewhat shoddier armor kicked at him and he fell back, his arm catching the bar connecting the thruster to the banshee. The brute laughed, but this quickly stopped when he realized his cockpit was still open and fell out yelling. Buck then felt the aircraft swivel, and then it pointed nose down into a spiral from lack of pilot. His hand clutched the bar, and then he realized how close he was to the thruster for it to just burn his face off. For a moment he didn't care.

"_Win this war, then ask be that again…"_

The war was over, but he couldn't ask her… he then saw the banshees following from behind, losing interest in the pelican. He breathed in slowly and then made his way into the cockpit of the falling craft, and felt it shut over his form. He re-engaged the thrusters and kicked up. The aircraft obeyed, and then he fired on one of the banshees following him. It broke apart and collapsed, the exact same situation happened to the other one. HE breathed and flew past the pelican. Finally he paid attention to his COM signal.

"Gunny, what the hell?" Romeo asked, for what seemed the twelve time for about two minutes.

"Can it Romeo, I'm alright… I think I just got into the controls, Puzzler, give me targets and I'll strike." Buck said. Kingsly answered back.

"Alright, another pelican is being torn to shreds by a group of banshees, should be northwest of you." Buck looked in the designated direction, shocked that even in midair; his helmet still knew what direction he was flying.

ROMEO

4 HOURS 10 MINUTES

Kojo Agu looked out through his sights towards another banshee, from the angle of light, it gleamed towards his scope, making the shot almost blinding. He discharged the bullet and then fired another one, the rounds pierced the cockpit of the banshee, and then he fired a third one, which tore it apart. Victor leaned on the other side of the pelican. He quickly fired and reloaded.

"Close shot." Romeo said, noticing the bullet only met ground. Victor stared at him, then immediately the pelican shook.

"Banshee!" Kingsly yelled, the pelican shook more moving around.

"I got it." Buck said on the COM. Romeo watched as the enemy banshee was bombarded by plasma. The Banshee fell apart, Romeo looked towards Buck in the banshee, he gave a slight thumbs up.

"Thanks… I guess." Buck answered over. The pelican shook again. Romeo braced his arm on the safety bar. He saw another small group of banshees, he fired towards them. Kingsly yelled out on the COM.

"We're on our last engine, we need to land and refit!" he yelled. The Pelican was slowly losing air. The banshees were coming in faster towards the ship.

"So we're pretty much dead, right?" Victor asked. Romeo groaned. The pilot struggled on the controls, quickly avoiding fire.

"That is if we land, SHOOT THE DAMN BANSHEES!" Kingsly yelled, the Banshee Buck was using was too busily preoccupied. Romeo and Victor quickly returned to shooting the banshees, they were pretty much dead now- Suddenly the banshees fell apart midair.

"The hell?" Kingslyy asked. Romeo looked out to see what destroyed the Banshees… MAC guns attached to the SAY-MY-NAME. Romeo stared and then fired towards a couple more banshees which were also quickly destroyed by the frigate. The rounds went through them like butter. The Covenant Tanks as well as soldiers were now retreating, knowing their shots against a MAC gun. Buck breathed on the COM.

"Boys, I think we're in the clear." Romeo breathed deeply from the sign of relief, he slowly took off his helmet and felt sweat down his face. Suddenly the COM spoke up. It was a familiar voice.

"Marines, I understand the covenant nearly 'clipped' your wings, I'll open the hangar bay for an emergency landing." Cox said. Romeo sat down looking out, while Victor remained standing up.

"We won't have any engineers to assist you, until we dealt with the flood and covenant forces inside." The commander said. The pelican lowered into the hangar bay, which was somewhat lopsided considering the angle the SAY-MY-NAME was in, luckily it didn't take any damage at all, and the Hangar Doors opened and closed without a hitch. Romeo breathed deeply.

"We made it." Kingsly leaned his head back towards Romeo as the pelican lowered into the hangar.

"Not quite, we're gonna need those engineers first." He said smugly. Romeo groaned and reloaded his rifle.

"Come on Victor, let's take care of the commanders little 'problem'." Victor nodded as Buck's banshee lowered into the hangar. Romeo looked around the room, it was rather large, larger than the one on the Dawn anyways, however seemed a bit dark, lights were flickering, screens were cracked. Looked pretty banged up. Buck exited the Banshee.

"I'll lead, Romeo you take point." The Gun-Ray sergeant ordered.

MICKEY

4 HOURS 10 MINUTES

Michael Crespo groaned as he watched the Covenant left the MAC gun's sight. Cox looked to him.

"Excellent, soldier." He said. The core shone brilliantly in the middle of the room, luckily they had access to the MAC gun controls from here. Mickey looked to him.

"What do we do now?" He asked. Cox looked out the monitor; it was on cameras of other places on the ship, one shown a group of flood attacking some wounded engineers. HE typed up on the monitor and it then showed the pelicans that remained outside. HE sighed, then looked to Mickey.

"We let our friends in." he said and walked to a control panel. He pulled at a microphone.

"Marines, I understand the covenant nearly 'clipped' your wings, I'll open the hangar bay for an emergency landing." Cox said. Mickey looked at him, then out the monitor. The commander typed on a couple keys on the screen.

"We won't have any engineers to assist you, until we dealt with the flood and covenant forces inside." By this time the Hangar Doors started opening, Cox ended the transmission and looked to Mickey.

"Now we should head back to the bridge, await backup, and I can better direct our marines from there." He said walking towards the hallway, Mickey followed. Quickly Cox jumped to the side of the hall, hearing a strange sound, Mickey did the same, clutching his SMG.

"Flood… down the hall." Cox said. Mickey nodded.

"Want me to engage?" he asked. Cox shook his head.

"No, we go together, draw their fire and I'll take out the other." HE said. Mickey nodded and slowly pulled out a grenade, he threw it towards the flood group, which quickly fell apart, however the remaining ones rushed towards him. Cox immediately shot one of them down, and then kicked another one away, shooting it again. Mickey breathed in slowly and looked towards the group, they were dead, seemed to be a couple bodies, but one was still alive. An engineer was on the floor, bloody and bad, dead flood was nearby. Mickey hurried to him.

"Hey, man you're gonna be alright, okay?" he asked. The man looked at him. Cox looked down at him, then towards the dead flood, he breathed slowly and pointed the pistol. The man shook his head.

"Wait… No." Quickly Cox fired into his head, his face blew apart and he fell over to his side. Mickey stared at him.

"What the hell?" Cox sighed.

"I'm sorry, but he was obviously infected… and we couldn't let him slow us down… besides… it's for the best." He simply said. Mickey stared at him, then down at the dead engineer.

"Yeah… your right… sir." Mickey slowly sighed.

_Kinda like when Faire did it… but she didn't know until too late._

Cox kept walking down the hallway, Mickey followed, the rest of the hallway was a bit quieter, and the remaining floods have just been fighting the forces inserted. The two reached the ladder to the bridge and climbed. Cox got through, then Mickey he quickly got to his feet and looked out, the group was holding its own, and from what he could see, some of the wounded were killed. Faire looked at him.

"Mickey, your back." She slightly smiled, a bit calmer since an hour ago. Mickey nodded. He looked at who else was with them. Sargent Avery Johnson looked his way, and then to Commander Cox.

"Sir, good to see you could make it." Cox walked to him.

"What is the situation?" Johnson sighed.

"We're holding them off, and some of our infected acted up… but we're doing well all considered, I heard you sent in an order for some soldiers to come in?" he asked. Cox nodded, he looked towards the newly lit screen on the Navy computer.

"I did, they should be here soon, keep up the perimeter while I try to prepare the other ship defenses." Cox ordered, Faire nodded towards him, Mickey rejoined the group, Dutch looked to him.

"How was your time down there?" he asked, almost casually. Mickey looked at him, and shrugged.

"Kinda dull… guy's weird." The three Marines quickly headed to the group's perimeter and fired on the flood, they seemed stronger now, could take in a few more bullets, they kept their rifles raised to help Johnson's team. Mickey quickly fired on a flood combat form, which jumped behind cover.

"They're getting smarter." He yelled.

"So are you." Dutch answered back, he fired towards another one. Which quickly fell apart, the combat forms started jumping towards the group like a sort of kamikaze. Mickey looked down the hallway and saw some grenades detonate, it shook the hall to high hell, and he quickly turned back to the current fight.

Faire pulled out an Elite energy sword and thrusted it towards one of the combat forms, it fell apart like butter against a hot knife. Mickey fired his rifle again and groaned.

"How come you guys get the best stuff?"

BUCK

4 HOURS 20 MINUTES

Eddy Buck led his men through the hallway, Victor gradually switched back to an assault rifle while Romeo held onto his Sniper Rifle. They quickly got through a Brute and fired on a group of flood, they were trying to swarm into a door. Buck took this moment to pull out a grenade and threw it towards the vomit colored monsters; the grenade detonated after a second and blew them to pieces, but also set off a couple nearby grenades. Romeo stared at Buck for a moment.

"Fuc- the room detonated to and pushed them all back, Buck slowly got back up after a minute of dealing with the pain. HE slowly helped Victor up, and looked to Romeo.

"Can you get up?" The African looked at him and quickly got up.

"Nothing's broken… yet." He groaned. Buck looked around the area and saw the flood attack was over. Romeo was about to remove his helmet.

"Don't, might not know what will come up." He said, Romeo slowly nodded, not removing it. The three soldiers quickly headed into the next room and saw the remaining flood being shot down, Faire Dutch and Mickey were among the living killing flood, the monsters were dead and Buck went to greet them, his visor de-polarized.

"How are you kids? Have some fun?" He asked. Faire groaned.

"A bit… find anything out?" She asked. Buck looked to her, he sighed.

"There's some kind of AI… thing, called Atlas, apparently it has claims that Rookie allied with some sort of… well enemy AI, Alcatraz." He said. Faire looked at him slightly, and tried to soak in the information.

"Son of a Bitch…" she simply said.

"Yeah, she's kinda dead right now." Buck said, matter-o-factly. Faire slowly nodded.

"Yeah… I know…" Mickey looked to them both.

"Hey, what's with all the doom and gloom, Rookie's alive, none of us are dead, I say we celebrate." He said. Romeo stared at him and sighed.

"Gunn-Ray Sargent, I see you and your… team, has arrived." Luke Cox's voice said, Buck turned towards him.

"Great to see you sir." He said. The man smiled and then looked the others.

"Keep watch over the perimeter, I'll take care of your captain." He simply said. Dutch looked to him and then Saluted.

"Sir." The 5 ODSTs quickly walked away as Buck walked with Cox.

"Sir, I suppose you're in charge now." Cox nodded.

"I suppose I am, the captain of this ship is dead, and my authority in ONI makes me the perfect Candidate to continue the mission." He said. Buck nodded.

"Well you've got a lot to take in sir, stuff about AIs and such… forerunner shit." The man nodded.

"I'm well aware of this, array, that's why ONI came in the first place." Buck almost felt like questioning this, but instead continued.

"I… see, well the board should bring you up to speed, I'd advise you to re-establish COM traffic with the Dawn." He said. Cox nodded.

"I'll make sure to do so… kinda convenient." Cox looked out the nearby bridge window, well actually at a nearby camera, the bridge was angled down and they couldn't see anything but dirt. He stared at the camera and saw the Citadel.

"Sir?" Cox looked to him.

"For the time being, this is our command Center, it has the strongest guns, and it's close to the Citadel… but that's beside the point, I am very impressed with your squad, sergeant." Cox said looking back to Buck. Buck felt a slight smirk, not expecting this.

"I, we work hard… but we aren't even at full strength… we've been missing some… personnel." Cox did not seem fazed by the last bit.

"Personnel… you mean Dante and Dare?" he asked. Buck stared at him.

"Yeah… how-"

"Your team asked me about Dare, the private mentioned a Dante." He said. Buck nodded.

"Yeah… well we know one of them is still quite alive, do you know anything about Dare?" he asked. Cox sighed.

"No more than you do." Buck nodded.

_It's not like her to just die…_

"…Where was she last seen?" Eddy found himself asking. Cox looked to him.

"She was on the bridge, when the ship was crashing, the impact knocked me out, perhaps she might have awakened before me, or perhaps she died in the impact… I'm sorry." He said. Buck nodded.

"Thanks sir… I'll go tend to my troopers." Cox nodded.

"Of course."

COX

5 HOURS

Luke Cox had opted to go alone, the SAY-MY-NAME was now in a stable state and engineers from the Dawn were quickly working to restore it. The elevator Luke stood in was going down into the Citadel catacombs, the new name ONI gave to the basement level.

"_I'm now in charge of the mission, it's time I see this Atlas, mind the ship Johnson."_

"_Sir, shouldn't someone come along?"_

"_No, this is a matter for ONI, it's in my jurisdiction, and the AI demands I come alone… hold down the fort, will you?"_

He slowly breathed in and out, feeling the strange taste in the air, felt mechanical, compressed… is the level so far down? The Elevator finally stopped and he stepped in, ONI had taken full control of the level Before he'd come in, the AI Alcatraz may had been in control of the level, but the AI had no power to stop them from coming in, seeing as they were… Forerunner, and it went against its programming. They had another group of Engineers in the AI core room questioning Alcatraz, but it did little considering the AI was cut off from its large part. It might as well have been a dumb AI… well technically it was.

Cox walked through the small hallway, it smelt like it was recently cleaned, the smell burned his nostrils. He approached a couple ONI marines in front of a doorway; they saluted him and went to the side. Cox walked through the door, into an empty room. Except a strange Monitor in the back of the room.

"You must be Atlas." He said simply, the Monitor was red, it answered back glowing each time it said a word.

"I looked at your file, so much black ink… one quarter of your life missing…" Cox nodded slowly.

"I suppose that would not be a problem?" he didn't say it like a question, more like a… demand.

"Of course not, I am Atlas, Monitor of installation 00."

"Why Atlas? Wouldn't it be something like 343 GS?"

"Guilty Spark… no, I'm afraid I'm very different from the ring monitors. As is Alcatraz." Cox nodded.

"I see, and that's what you want, to find this unit, before he ruins your fun."

"Precisely, he is using an Orbital Drop Shock trooper pawn you should know as James Dante." Cox sighed.

"I'm familiar with his CO, so you want him?" Cox asked, negotiations were going well.

"Yes, I don't care if he's alive or dead, just bring the AI he carries." Cox nodded.

"I see… why would we do this for you?" he asked, bargaining.

"I learned much about, ONI, which you market in information… I will give you access to the ARK's secrets, if you bring me Alcatraz." Cox smiled, this is what he liked to hear.

"I think we're at an agreement, if you had a hand, I'd shake it." The Ai did not respond. Cox looked to Atlas.

"So, if your monitoring this, ARK, where is Dante right now?" he asked.

"…In a sandy environment far south, he is freeing elites, Alcatraz already took the sector."

"I see, give my pelicans the coordinates, we'll stop him right there."

"Very well, I'm uploading them to Say-My-Name, done… but you need to send the order out."

"Consider it done, thank you for your co-operation."

"…Yes." Cox turned, about to leave, and then stopped.

"Now… one more thing… how did you crash my ship?" Cox then asked. Atlas did not respond for a second.

"…Wouldn't you like to know?"

(Originally this chapter contained more rookie, but I cut some of it out for the next chapter because it's a bit… eh shorter and I wanted to give it more content. I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, I like Cox a good bit, and I suppose you can all guess what he is, if you read the books, and the conspiring at the end will come back in chapter 6, I also enjoy writing for Kingsly, he's a fun character to do… I can't explain why, anyways please review and tell me what you think.)


	6. Chapter 6

THE COVENANT FLAGSHIP

HERESY'S BANE

UNKNOWN AGE, END OF 9th AGE OF RECLAMATION

DECEMBER 11th 2552

4 HOURS AFTER THE PROPHET OF TRUTH'S DEATH

1 HOUR BEFORE THE SECOND FIGHT OVER THE CITADEL

The Crew onboard Heresy's Bane was in Turmoil, news of the prophet's death sent some into a rampage, the Minor Prophets agreed on a joint session with the other ships to decide on new temporary leadership, and future goals. A minor prophet by the name of Shalym Cyrell the prophet of Supposition, led the council.

"The news of the prophet of Truth's death, shook our faith… shook our faith to the very core." The San' Shyumm began; the other Council Members remained silent.

"But we cannot let this… blight; bring an end to our journey." The alien continued.

"But the humans…" Began one of the members.

"The humans and seperatists have taken complete control of the citadel." Shalym shook his head.

"No, not yet, their ship has crashed, yes… but not full control." The others looked to him.

"What do you plan to do? Prophet of Supposition?" Asked another councilor. The alien looked among his brethren, some simply could not make it because of flood attacks, and others remained back in known space, holograms.

"You see the ring that has risen? The replacement for the one the humans took away… it is a sign, we must go in… and take the altar of the gods away." The Prophet looked out towards the ARK, they could slightly see the crashed ship, and on one of the monitors was a closer camera. Human infantry vehicles were fluttering by.

"Their ship burns, they are starting to send reinforcements over the downed freighter, I say we send in our troops, we outnumber them 6 to 1… now is the time for a counter strike." He said. some of the councilors agreed, others seemed skeptical of the plan.

"What if we take our time to consolidate our forces?" One asked.

"…Then we lose our chance at Salvation." He simply said. A couple of the council members gasped. He looked to them

"Have you made up your minds?" One of the council members nodded his head.

"We have… we have agreed to follow through with your plan… Prophet." Shalym seemed unfazed, expecting this.

"Very well, I shall send in the order, you may leave now." The councilors slowly left the room, leaving him alone, all remained but one hologram. Shalym stared towards him.

"Prophet?"

"I sure hope you know what you are doing… prophet." The hologram fazed out.

"As do I…"

_They have trusted me with this power… if things go in my favor…_

Shalym pressed on the terminal.

"Engineering, have you upgraded all our tanks and fighters?"

"…Almost, the upgrades we found will increase our… capabilities."

"Good, when you finish, prep them for battle." He then ended the transmission, and looked out the window, this ship use to be Truth's, then he went and died, and it turned over to him. It was somewhat luxurious, he stared out towards the ARK, and the Halo ring, he breathed softly. The first step to securing his power was securing the journey.

THE ROOKIE

5 HOURS 10 MINUTES

The room was quiet, sentinel drones filled the air, they were colored red. Like the screen on the terminal in the middle of the room, The Artificial Intelligence, named Atlas.

"You will fail… Alcatraz, like how you failed the fore-runners."

"When I take this facility back, then we'll see who the true failure is."

_He doesn't control this place yet?_

James thought on this, and then stepped towards the screen again.

"Enough about him… who… what are you?" James asked. The screen flashed for a moment.

"I? I am the monitor, of installation 0…0." Atlas simply said. James nodded.

"I… ok." Alcatraz seemed annoyed with him, Atlas then stated.

"You've impressed me, your file leaves so little to be desired." James stared at the AI for a moment.

"Your team is searching for you, you know that?" It slowly asked.

"…What?" James asked. His mind hadn't been on them for a while. After everything that happened, he was happy to hear his team was all alive.

"Don't listen to him, he's trying to turn you against me." Alcatraz hissed. James paid little attention.

"So they're all okay?"

"…Oh yes… very much. They're on their way here, to collect the elites… well maybe not them per say… but you get my… drift." The AI spoke eloquently, like Alcatraz, but it was different.

"Where are they?"

"At the citadel… wouldn't you like to see them?" James stared at it. Alcatraz immediately spoke up on the speakers.

"No we're not, not until I get my installation… Atlas." Alcatraz said. The AI mechanically responded. James looked toward the red screen, what looked to be camera footage appeared, they were alive… James felt a releaved feeling in his heart.

"We wouldn't want that… Because I know what you'll do… you traitor." Alcatraz answered.

"Traitor?" James whispered.

"Atlas plans, that once I'm out of the picture, to kill the humans, and to collect flood samples… protocol means so much to him." James slowly focused the pistol again.

"Put down the weapon Human… The AI on your back hisses only lies."

"Now they're lies… at what point do they become truth?" What was Alcatraz talking about? Atlas planned to target humanity when this was over?

"You are a fool Alcatraz, give me the module, Dante… or I'll turn them against you." James stared at the monitor, saying.

"Not one for negotiating, are you?" the AI didn't respond.

"You do not understand your situation, trooper."

"I think I understand well enough." He said. Atlas slowly responded.

"If you don't give him to me… they'll kill you… I'm doing you a kindness, reclaimer." This AI seemed to be trying everything to get on his goodside… but he was lying, he could tell.

James fired on one of the screens, a large crack fractured.

"No… That's not happening." Atlas slowly responded.

"Well, then we are at an impasse." It spoke, and then a bar appeared on the screen and loaded.

"If you will not listen to reason, then perhaps force will be necessary." Atlas replied. The sentinels that rose from the platform floated in the air, James focused his started targeting him, James avoided a yellow beam going towards him, as another dinged off on his shields. Another hit and shot James back. He focused the pistol, and shot a few rounds, it barely went through ones shields. He breathed slowly and sighed.

_These things are only doing this because Alcatraz doesn't have control yet… I think._

"Alcatraz, anything you can do about them?"

"I need full control… the takeover should be finished in a moment." Another shot and disabled his shields.

"Any time now." He found himself saying.

"…Almost… now." Immediately the drones stopped firing, theyire coloring changed to blue. He breathed. HE then heard a laughing from the red terminal again, Atlas seemed impressed. Immediately James started hearing something outside, it was a UNSC pelican. Flying very close to the building.

"Good day… Dante… and Alcatraz, I'll make sure the UNSC picks that unit off your body." James slowly turned and saw something… missiles. They were outside the window, coming close. Atlas' image disappeared and James was pushed against the wall from the missile's explosion. A large hole in the wall appeared. James slowly looked out to see a pelican; it focused on him and started firing more rockets. James jumped out of the way, and felt burning pain on his side.

"Agh…" He groaned, trying to crawl away.

"James, you need to get to the teleporter, it's the only way?" He slowly stood back up, clutching the pistol, he fired towards the pelican, not even denting it.

"Why? We're dead anyways…" James slowly said.

"Not if we stop Atlas." James looked towards the pelican, then behind him to the teleporter. He slowly nodded.

"… Alright…" He immediately ran for the teleporter and jumped in. Alcatraz started it.

"We're going to the city, we can hide there." James' eyes lit up from the nearing Rockets.

"GET ME OUT!" and he disappeared. The rockets crashed through the teleporter, breaking it. The UNSC Pelican stopped it's barraging.

"Target has gone, I repeat, target has gone… on to secondary objective, over."

FORE-RUNNER CITY

5 HOURS AND 20 MINUTES

James slowly crawled away from the teleporter. He felt his side bleeding.

"Agh… damn." He groaned. He slowly stood up, feeling slight blurs in his vision. He turned back towards the teleporter, the screen next to it faded dark. He could see power cables leading from it into the ground.

"Won't they follow us?"

"They don't know where we are yet… Atlas will figure it out, he always does… " Alcatraz said. James sighed.

"Why didn't you betray me? You could have been away by now." James sighed. He was in an alleyway.

"I know… but if what you said was true… then… I can't risk it."

"…Thank you… James." Alcatraz said. He nodded.

"Yeah…" he then removed his helmet and coughed.

"Agh… fuck…" He said. Alcatraz didn't respond. He slowly looked around; the sky was blue, and dark. He could see the stars out. He then took a slight look outside to where he could see many buildings, or the forerunner's version of buildings, very grand, long metallic buildings, reminded him of boxes. The coloration seemed a bit dark, most was gray. James slowly putted the helmet back on and crouched by the wall.

"What do we do… then?" Alcatraz slowly answered.

"We find you medical attention; I doubt you will do so well on the suit's life support, maybe some med packs. Then we head to the tower in the middle of the city. That's where the next access point is." James slowly nodded.

"I see… alright, but for now on, you tell me everything I ask." James said. Alcatraz slowly answered.

"Very well… What would you like to know?"

"What's going to become of that place we were at, that… desert sanctuary?"

"I would suppose, it'd be destroyed, I should be in full control by now, I only hope he knows what he's doing."

"He? Didn't know you were so affectionate to a copy."

"No… he's not a copy, for this process to work, I need to slowly split my subconscious into pieces… that's how I manage, because if I use copies, they slowly get worse. So I figured I should split my subconscious so I can manage it. So far I've lost about… 35 percent of myself… back at the sanctuary and the citadel… I should be fine."

"What about when you take full control?"

"…Then I reconstruct myself from all the pieces, and take up my duties to my makers." Alcatraz slowly answered.

"I see… so what will it be like, if you were at say… 30%?"

"…I might go mad… splitting one's self into pieces is very dangerous to the AI's sanity, you may call it rampancy, when you've been around as long as I've been, and to be torn apart at the very core… it's, unnerving.… you'll be fine though." He finished. James sighed. Alcatraz was slowly going crazy, and to consider the time he spent here… James would be shocked if he wasn't a little bit already.

"What about my team? The UNSC?"

"…I don't know, Atlas must of proved they could trust him, he branded you a traitor and is working to find and kill us… but your team… if they can be trusted, then I would suppose it'd be a good idea to let them into the loop." That last part gave James a little hope, they would just need to find him first. James looked around the nearby ground, and grabbed the pistol he teleported with. He would need a weapon.

"Now as for your pieces at the Citadel and such…"

"There are in control of their areas, I exploited a bug in the software to take control of these areas, I still retain a rank of administer, and by entering those ports, with your help, I can force the terminal to recognize me as the one in charge, and not Atlas. I'm slowly re-writing the software for each terminal so Atlas can't take back control the way I'm doing it."

"but… could he?" Alcatraz obviously didn't like this talk.

"If he got back my chip, he could use parts of my programming to undo the work I've done… So I need to succeed, and do so now." James thought on this for a moment, and slowly replied.

"Ok… that's enough for now… let's get going."

DUTCH

4 HOURS 30 MINUTES

Taylor Dutch Miles sat at one of the seats; Cox was busy talking to Johnson. Dutch looked to Buck, who was examining a map of the ship.

"Hey, Gunny… I was thinking." Buck turned to him.

"We kinda lived on this ship for like a month, and it'd be really important, for some of us… if we take a look around and well… check out our rooms." Dutch said. Buck stared at him.

"Hm… We really have nothing better to do, and I think we could pass it off as inspection of the lower regions of the ship…" Buck slowly stood up.

"Alright, I think we could do something like that." Suddenly a nearby console broke apart and the sudden movement Jerked Faire away from one of the chairs. Dutch slowly sighed.

"Eh, sir… maybe you Romeo and the others should head out, me and Faire will tend to the consoles." Dutch said, sighing. Faire quickly looked to him.

"Wait, what's going on?" Dutch groaned.

"We're gonna have to fix the consoles, my knowledge of the wiring, and your… well you know." He said. Faire looked at her arm, and groaned.

"Whatever… " Dutch nodded, then looked to Buck.

"One moment." He turned to Buck.

"In the event that my room is still together, it would be nice if you could grab items of importance… you know… as a friend." Buck nodded.

"Consider it done, come on guys." Buck turned to Romeo, Victor and Mickey and gestured to them.

"Let's get moving." The group left, and Faire stared at Dutch.

"You know, I lived on this ship too, and Victor was assigned to the Dawn." She said. Dutch sighed.

"Do you have something you want them to get?" he asked. Faire thought for a moment.

"No." Dutch smirked then.

"Then why are you complaining?"

VICTOR

4 HOURS 35 MINUTES

Quentin Held the assault rifle to his side walking through the hallway with his team.

_This place is a bit old, and the crash did no help at all._

The statement was true, broken wiring rolled out in places, and some hallways had collapsed from the crash. Luckily the lights were restored, which only made it suck to see how ratty the ship was.

"So what are we looking for?" He asked. Buck looked behind, noticing they were far enough out.

"Our stuff on the ship, some of its personal, and needs to be secured." Victor nodded.

"Okay… How personal?" Buck groaned from the question. Romeo looked to him.

"Personal enough to say it's none of your business." Victor rolled his eyes.

"Well, aren't you touchy." They kept walking and finally approached one of the rooms.

"This one's mine." Mickey immediately said. He approached the door and inserted the key card, the door half opened and jammed. Buck sighed.

"Door's jammed, come on Romeo, give me a little muscle." He said. Romeo approached the door with Buck and they applied their strength to force the door to the side.

"Times like this I miss Dutch." Romeo said. The door opened and they walked in. Victor was the last to walk in; he looked around to see the room was practically torn apart, well a bit. Mickey hurried to his side of the room, the side that was much messier, and grabbed a duffle from under his cot. He then proceeded to bag some of the stuff he needed. Victor noticed that there was a second cot in here.

"Who's the roommate?" Victor asked. Mickey looked to him.

"Rookie, think we should try and secure his stuff?" Mickey asked. Buck slowly nodded.

"We owe him that much." Victor, Romeo, and Buck went to Rookie's side(which was generally more tidy) and started picking up a couple objects, there was a bag nearby which use to contain them, after the crash it was open. Buck picked it up and started feeding some of the important looking stuff into it. Victor walked around some of the things, it was pretty general stuff, memorabilia, old data bits, a magazine called programmers nightly.

"Seems he was interested in Artificial intelligence." Victor said absentmindedly.

"Yeah, he was." Mickey said nonchalantly. They looked to him.

"What? I'm his best friend; I'd know the most about him." Victor nodded, he then picked up a picture it was partially burnt, it looked to have been sitting in a nearby envelope. A picture of James Dante with two people beside him, a man and a woman, Victor noticed the resemblance. Buck looked at the photo.

"His parents… he'll want that." Victor looked to him.

"What do you mean, what happened?" Buck sighed.

"They didn't make the Luna attack…" Buck simply said, he turned the photo over, the back read MAY 18th 2547.

"His graduation?" Victor then asked. Buck shrugged and putted the photo into the bag.

"Maybe… a couple months before he enlisted." He sighed then looked around the room.

"That's all we're gonna get here, let's head to Dutch's room." Mickey looked to him.

"But your room's closer." Buck groaned, looking down.

"I don't want anything there…"

ROOKIE

5 HOURS 30 MINUTES

James Dante Carefully looked out through the alleyway; it along with every other alleyway in the city was empty. He clutched the pistol in his hand, it was very dark out, it reminded him of New Mombassa. He flickered on the VISR to take a better look around, edges of objects in the 'streets' had a yellow line across them; he couldn't see anything friendly or antagonistic. He breathed in slowly. The Architecture of the city was impressive, and actually looked like a city, there was roads… well an equivalent to roads, no signs, and all the buildings looked to be made out of really strong metal, and looked the same.

"Did this town have a name?" he asked. Alcatraz slowly answered.

"…In your language, it was called Madrigal. Atlas locked up that information, feeling it was of no importance."

"Would you say otherwise?"

"I have a real thing for history… it's all the makers have anymore." The AI said.

"I see… I suppose that'd be important to you." James said. He crossed the street, looking about, he could feel a pain in his side, as he limped across.

"…Look up." Alcatraz said. James quickly did so, seeing a Covenant assault carrier overhead. The VISR colored it red.

"They have a presence here, be on your guard. Remember, you need to find a health pack."

"Yeah…" he slowly reloaded his pistol. He kept walking through the street, until he heard something.

"The alleyway, something's in there." Alcatraz quickly answered. James pointed the magnum.

"Maybe I should take a look…"

"I'd advise against it but… go ahead." The AI said. James slowly walked towards the alleyway to his left. He looked through the VISR and saw a couple things on the floor, he got closer, the things were a couple dead soldiers. UNSC, He nudged them to see they were dead, he sighed. One was clutched a med pack, half opened, James slowly took it.

"I'll apply this, try and take this time to… look around or something." James said slipping off the helmet. He removed the chassis to his Armor and applied the med-gel to his stomach; there was a large burn over it. He then grabbed the pills in the med-pack, vaguely recognizing them as pain medication, he swallowed them in. He felt slightly better, near the soldiers there were some rations, he ate a couple, and then quickly felt a slight ease to hunger.

"Okay, I'm good here." James quickly put the torso back on, and then the helmet.

"Find anything?"

"Yeah, a route to the tower, it'll be dangerous though."

"Since when isn't it."

"…True, your signals are better."

"Thanks…" James looked at the dead soldiers again, he felt sorry for them, the war was over, and they die… one of them was missing a helmet; James felt a pain in the back of his head. The man looked familiar…

_"The sergeant's alright… right?" _

_"I don't know." _

_"This should keep you together, for a while."  
_

James stepped back, breathing heavily, he had just seen this man hours ago, he recongnized the bandages… he applied them himself, and he's dead now.

"James, calm down." He looked down on the man… that was blood, caked on the ground, fresh and warm… James couldn't save him, he tried… but ultimately failed. He felt his hands spasm for a moment.

"DANTE!" James snapped back into Reality. Where was he again? Oh yeah… the fore-runner city…

"I…I'm fine…" James slowly lied.

"Your heart-beat skyrocketed… you sure?"

"Positive…" James breathed, and looked down at the man again.

_No more… No more dead heroes._

"Let's start on the route." James said.

FAIRE

5 HOURS

The bridge was generally quiet currently. Cox was gone, he had left 20 minutes ago, so that might have supported that. Me and the others sat at the bridge assisting the engineers in restoring the ship systems, it annoyed me that the others left to get their stuff, but it wasn't too big of a problem, I was busy working on the wiring, an engineer was instructing me on repairing the panel.

"Alright, good… gently re-insert." The engineer told me, I slowly obeyed his commands and then the light to the console lit up.

"Good, now we'll have access to the COMS relay on the ship, from there we can improve the link with the Dawn." He said. I nodded.

I slowly got up, I heard talking ten meters away in the area on the bridge they were treating wounded. I looked to Dutch.

"Hey, can you vouch for me, I'm gonna take a look around." The man looked to me.

"Sure thing, just don't cause trouble." I didn't respond and slowly walked away, the air felt cool on my face, we made sure to not remove helmets until we disinfected the bridge of flood spores, luckily we finished quickly and I could pin my hair back before it could become a sweaty mess. I still have a feeling some of us are infected. I entered the make-shift med bay, they were looking better, now that we got more medics in, they were rationing out the med supplies to the infected. Johnson was talking to one of the doctors, I recognized him as being the one giving physicals when I accepted the job. Johnson finished talking and then turned to me; the doctor kneeled down to another patient.

"Faire, how's it going, you doing alright?" he asked. This was the guy who flew me back when that Nuke went off… James' plan… I parted my lips slightly.

"Decent… er… sorry how I acted a couple hours ago." Johnson nodded.

"It's alright, when you're with the UNSC as long as I have, you get use to… incidents." I slightly looked down embarrassed, and then nod.

"But it should turn out fine, Dante's as far as we know, still alive, and I doubt he would just kick the bucket… did you get that… thing?" he asked. I looked to him, and then quickly remember he meant the ring, I nod quickly.

"Yeah, I hope to give it back to him… I know it's really important to him." He shook his head.

"So are you." I freeze there, not knowing how to respond to that. I scratch my head slightly and then I heard a higher pitched "Beep" from the bridge, Johnson nods and we walk over to it. When I arrive I see that the rest of the squad has returned and it's Cox at the monitor.

"As the new leader of the mission, this is hard news to give, but I will do my best to keep us all together… but that's not the only news, we have a soldier gone AWOL." I look to my side and see Buck, he stares at the screen, knowing what's coming up.

_I have a bad feeling_

VICTOR

5 HOURS 30 MINUTES

Quentin looked at the screen, Cox was giving out an important message to all UNSC forces, soldier gone AWOL? Was he talking about the Rookie? He looked at the man's features; he seemed to look somewhat sickly, perhaps from the pressure.

"I have chatted with the AI entity known as Atlas, he has records of a UNSC marine disobeying a UNSC directive and is now working with a rogue AI unit. We do not know the depths of this betrayal, but I'm putting it as a vital mission to the cause, right next to repair. All UNSC forces who are not vital to repair, I'm allowing you to track this soldier down…" Victor breathed slowly, this was definitely Dante, and although he didn't know working with a rogue AI was well… bad. But if that unit got to Dante, it could probably convince him to light the rings before the chief gets done on HALO.

"Now this soldier, he is a young marine named James Dante, an Orbital Drop Shock Trooper, and now, public enemy number one… now understand this… this isn't a man hunt, if you can bring him back alive, do so, but also understand, he is considered incredibly dangerous… how dangerous? You may ask… This much." Cox then showed a HOLO-Video of someone in modified ODST armor killing a small group of Brutes, it looked easy. Cow then re-appeared.

"He was last seen entering the Fore-runner city… that is all, and good luck to everyone." Cox disappeared. There was murmuring across the group, mostly from soldiers not part of Buck's team. Victor looked towards Faire who was speechless. He put his hand on her shoulder, she sighed.

"I'm fine… really." She removed it. Victor nodded, then thought on Atlas.

_The AI convinced Cox to send troopers to find Dante? Something seems wrong here._

Other soldiers have started to walk towards the hangar, including Baker's squad. Victor looked to the Captain, Buck, Who was talking to Johnson.

"He can't be serious, public enemy number 1?"

"I know what you're saying, but the commander must have good reason." The man sighed.

"But, we can't just let them kill Rookie." Avery shook his head.

"All these soldiers are just excited to get out there, to kill one guy, floods out there as well as covenant… but as long as there's something to fight… just like back with the Innies." Johnson said. Buck shook his head.

"But sir, this is DIFFERENT, Rookie's no terrorist, and we both know that." Johnson breathed then looked to Buck.

"Your right… that's why I'm sending your squad to retrieve him."

BUCK

Around the group the engineers and marines had dispersed until it was just Johnson and the ODST team. He had their full attention.

"Sir?" Eddy Buck quickly asked. Johnson pulled out a new cigar and lit it.

"Considering how excited some people will be for a mission that isn't rescue and repair, Dante's in trouble, and so I'd say your squad is the best hope at getting him out of this situation." He took a long drag and breathed out. Mickey coughed from the fumes.

"I'm not willing to let a good soldier die just because our commander doesn't trust his judgment. You're squad will retrieve him and have him brought to me… tell nobody, I'll enter it in as a reconnaissance mission." Johnson then said.

"Sir, why all the sneaking around?" Buck asked. Johnson sighed.

"Because I trust Dante, he would never do this without good reason. And I doubt we can trust ONI with another AI." He said. Buck slowly nodded.

"Alright… but if we do this, there's something I need you to do." Buck said. Johnson looked at him.

"Consider it done." Buck froze.

"What? You didn't even know what I was gonna say." Buck said. Johnson sighed.

"You want me to work on finding Veronica Dare… am I right?" Buck slowly nodded his head.

"I don't think she's dead, her body isn't here… she's alive, I can just feel it." Johnson nodded.

"You got it, just get going." Johnson said. Buck slowly nodded.

"Move out." he ordered. They quickly grabbed their helmets and hurried to the hangar bay. Faire was silent during the walk. They had entered the hanger bay to see things were looking better, Tom Kingsly was sitting on the cockpit of his Pelican. Buck looked to him.

"Puzzler, how's repairs?" He jumped off the cockpit, seemingly excited.

"About finished, and we installed a new gauss turret from one of the downed hogs."

"Good, we were just given a new mission." Buck said, he nodded to his troopers as they entered the Pelican, Kingsly looked to one of the engineers.

"Hey, watch that, not so tight." He said, grabbing the man's tool and loosening the coil. Buck looked down from the pelican.

"Kingsly, we need to get going." The pilot nodded.

"Alright." He stopped what he was doing and closed up the cover, he walked up the cockpit.

"So where are we going?"

Johnson stood there and watched the pelican exit from the hangar, he was all alone now. He heard a slight rumble from behind him; He sighed, and then quickly pulled his pistol out of its holster, not specifically aiming it.

"Don't you like hiding… pulled the same crap in Mombassa." He quickly said, a woman in differently assorted parts of ODST armor, clutching a silenced magnum pistol, groaned from being caught.

"Good to see you too Sargent Major."

"You too, Veronica."

ROOKIE

6 HOURS SINCE MISSION START

James hunched to the side of the building, he could hear Covenant speech on the other side of the wall.

"Don't engage, to many… get closer though, they might be talking about something useful." Alcatraz said. James obliged and crouched down; silently walking to the side of a downed Wraith Tank… it seemed different. He looked out to see they were watching a hologram, it was of some sort of prophet, maybe a minor, and he had the same audacity as Truth though.

"The hierarch's death, wracked our hearts with grief, and so now I ask, we all must hold on, for the hour of the journey slowly approaches. The heretics possess a great force within the holy city, we must fight this heresy wherever it remains on this ARK, till it is flowing with their blood. Only then will the Journey Commence. I am bringing out an order to all loyal believers in the Journey, to fight this heresy in the holy city… thank you." The hologram disappeared. Alcatraz was silent and then said.

"The holy city… That fool speaks about a counter attack here, in Madrigal. This would be the perfect cover to get to the terminal. And considering your new status, they're probably going to come all over." James slowly worked away from the group… he didn't like what he was hearing.

"Only one problem, the UNSC is probably expecting a small group of Covenant to still be here, and one AWOL soldier, if they send in a lot more people to go after me… and the covenant are sending re-enforcements to specifically kill them… it'll be a massacre." Alcatraz was silent. James felt his breathing hinge a slight bit. It reminded him of the dead man he passed before back in the streets, and of other people.

"This is not your fault, we need to do this." James sighed.

_I can't save them… I couldn't even save my own parents… but I could do something… here, and now._

Short flashes appeared in James mind, Covenant attacks, dying soldiers, and his own dead mother.

"We're not letting that attack happen." James slowly said.

"What?"

"We're going to take the fight to the covenant."

FAIRE

6 HOURS

We sat in the pelican, it was exiting the hangar, I slowly looked outside towards the SMN, and it looked better. Part of me was still shocked from current events, and another part was pissed off. Why would James do this? He was just going to free those damn soldiers, Baker and his team. But then later he decides to take this crusade to help some AI. Increasing immensely the chance of his death, what does he want? And now we're all being sent to bring him back… terrific. I look out over the area, it was dark, and starting to get on my nerves, I hadn't slept in practically a day. And now this stress was getting to me, I looked at the silver ring on my right ring finger, or what is now my right ring finger. It gleamed from the light; however it shone dully… what was the reason for this? I sigh and sit back, clutching in my left hand an unloaded Shotgun; I had found it on the way out. And so I returned Mickey his BR. I tried to control my breathing; I could feel something was wrong. I turned and looked to Victor, the new Rookie.

"So how was seeing your old team?" I find myself asking, remembering Victor was part of Johnson's crew. The marine thinks about it for a moment, and then says.

"It's, nice… I guess, great to see Dante got them out of that trouble back at the citadel." I freeze, not answering to that, hell not expecting that. James freed his old team? Why does this keep coming back to me? Victor nods and then turns away, I go back into my contemplation. It's all I really do anymore, sit around and think. I then looked to the side and see Mickey, he's holding a duffel bag, he then opens it up and hands something to Dutch.

"Sorry we didn't have time back there to hand things out, so I figure I should hand them out now." He said. Dutch nodded. Mickey handed him a photo and a couple small objects, I then looked and quickly realized some of these were mementos from his wife. Dutch smiled appreciatively, and putted the stuff in his pockets and pack. I sigh, and then look out. The ARK seemed so quiet at night, like it was so easy to hide a war. I looked up into the sky, and could see a couple clouds being outlined by one of the distant moons, maybe artificial. Nearby was the Halo ring. Romeo sat right beside me, his eyes on the clouds.

"There's gonna be a storm." He simply said. I slowly nodded.

"We that lucky?" I ask. He shrugs.

"Rained back in Mombasa, and we're going into a city… kinda convenient… and you see the clouds? An hour ago there weren't so many." He said. I nodded. Buck looked to him and then stood up, approaching the exit.

"This is gonna be a clear cut operation, we're gonna get in, find Rookie, and get out." He said. I slowly putted my helmet on. I quickly felt the snug fit of it.

"Puzzler, how soon till we're there?"

"About twenty minutes, I'm still calibrating the engines." I immediately turned to Kingsly.

"What? You're supposed to calibrate them the moment they're installed, if we get attacked and you're calibrating, we could-"

"Relax." Buck immediately said. I quickly lost confidence and didn't respond. Buck looked to him.

"But like she said, the sooner the better." I felt a slight smirk appear on my lips. The others started grabbing their equipment; I loaded a clip into my shotgun and kept my finger on the safety.

"You sure we're gonna find him?" Mickey asked. Buck sighed for a moment, and looked at us, his helmet polarizing.

"We have to."

HERESY'S BANE

7 HOURS AFTER THE PROPHET TRUTH'S DEATH

Shalym looked out onto the ARK, it was a beautiful site, and their faith had been restored when they came here, but it shattered the moment Truth died. He was unsure if the Covenant would simply fall apart at the seams, without the Sanghelli, the true muscle of the covenant, could they succeed? They had to. He looked out onto the ship SAY-MY-NAME, the ship came to life and wiped out their forces… luckily it was not the bulk, only a couple waves in the endless sea. They had made sure to keep their distance. A Brute chieftain then walked onto his bridge.

"Prophet, the humans have retreated, backed into their ship, should we counter attack?" The prophet did not speak back, he slowly turned his head.

"No, we must consolidate our forces… return to me in a couple minutes, I'll finish that thought." The brute bowed his head and walked off the bridge. It was generally quiet; the Grunt engineers were busy on their consoles.

"My what a show you have put on." Shalym immediately turned his head, to find where the voice came from, he then looked to see it came from the console.

"Who are you?" it looked to be some kind of program.

"A gift from your gods."

ROOKIE

6 HOURS 30 MINUTES

James slowly slid up onto the platform, the air was cold and brisk, he saw that there was a group of Brutes a hundred meters from his location; they seemed to be in a sort of standby stage. Alcatraz's voice started on his COM.

"I'll stay connected to the network, you'll have a map of the city." He said. James nodded.

"Thanks." He slowly started to walk towards the group.

"Did you get that active camouflage updated?"

"Yes, it won't last long, and it's not as… new as theirs."

"Can't make this too easy."

"Just get the job done."

(Alright, Lots have stuff have happened, and I included new stuff concerning the covenant, to help tell their part of the story, obviously the beginning part is before the second battle over the citadel in chapter five. Now as for this, some of you may ask why I updated so fast, that is simple, today is 12/11/12, in 540 years the UNSC will finally end the Covenant war(when truth died). That's partly why I included that in the beginning. I hope you all enjoy this chapter, they learn a bit more about Rookie's past, and we see a bit of the guilt going on in his head, as well as Seeing the covenant's side of the story. Thank you for reading and please review.)


	7. Chapter 7

ROMEO

6 HOURS 5 MINUTES

Pelican 68410, call-sign "Puzzler" Was approaching the Fore-runner City, inside was its pilot Tom Kingsly, Leader of the mission: Eddy Buck, Michael "Mickey" Crespo, Anne Faire, Taylor "Dutch" Miles, Quentin Victor, and Kojo "Romeo" Agu.

"We have to." Eddy Buck said simply, Romeo sighed.

"We're gonna find something atleast." Victor stared at him for a moment, but didn't respond. Romeo polarized his helmet and loaded a clip into the sniper rifle he was carrying. Buck looked at it.

"You be careful with that." Kojo didn't respond.

"So do we know anything about this place?" Romeo simply asked. Buck shrugged, Kingsly groaned and then answered.

"I read a report over it back at the SAY-MY-NAME, it's supposed to be some kind of fore-runner city, we sent troops in to investigate, there seems to be a problem with the flood there, and the Covenant also has a large fore occupying the city."

"Terrific." Mickey simply said.

"We intercepted covenant COM chatter about it; they call it the holy city."

"Like what they called High Charity?" Buck asked, puzzled.

"Something like that, except that city is in lodged in the ARK, and really this is like a holy city of the gods… minus the gods." Kingsly answered back. Romeo felt a smirk creep up his face.

"So 'desecrating this city with our footprints' would play like the ultimate Fuck-you?" He asked. Kingsly sighed.

"Maybe, we've done worse."

"True…" Buck had returned to talking to Kingsly while Romeo sat beside Faire. They immediately heard the sound of rain dropping down from the sky, Romeo looked out the window to see exactly what he thought he'd see. He looked towards Anne Faire.

"Knew it." She looked away, annoyed, resting her head against the back of the pelican. Her helmet had rolled out of her lap, and she reached for it with her new "Prosthetic" robot hand. Not reaching it, obviously.

"You look like you could use a hand." He smirked, grabbing her helmet. He offered it towards her, she immediately snatched it away with a-

"Fuck you."

She obviously did not like it too much; there was a quick stare down between them for a moment. Dutch looked back to back.

"Got anything else to say? Princess?" Romeo asked. Faire searched for words, but before she could speak, Dutch intervened.

"Hey, how about we focus on our jobs, corps isn't paying us by the hour." Dutch said, Romeo looked away, and then sat back, sniper rifle in hand. Buck turned from his conversation with Tom to see what was happening, he sighed and then asked.

"Anyway… What kind of force do we have in there?" Kingsly groaned.

"Before or after Dante? Do you mean?" Buck didn't respond at that last bit.

"We sent in a couple small teams to investigate the area, we found out that's where the covenant found plans to upgrade their arsenal. But now with a certain AWOL soldier and our commander glorifying his capture, I'd say a small militia."

"Glad to see where you stand over this." Dutch said. Tom Kingsly nodded.

"Keeps me sane." Romeo nodded, before thinking on this.

_Bothers me that we're on this quest to find him, I don't even like him, and I'm still going through with this… guess the promise of action is what's brought me along._

"Anything to pass the time before evac." He slowly stood up beside Kingsly to look out the cockpit.

"It's really raining now." He said. The rain was building up for quite some time, the pelican's windshield wipers had trouble wiping it all off so quickly. Kingsly chuckled.

"Damn right, we're almost there; I'll drop you off and take a look around the area." Romeo nodded, the pelican slowed down and started to land on what looked to be ground. Romeo saw the ramp fall down and reveal the massive storm outside.

"Damn alien weather." He groaned. Dutch tapped his shoulder walking pass him.

"Come on, let's move." The rain was very thick in the air; Romeo held his hand out and felt the pressure on it from the rain, strong stuff, felt like bricks, thank god they had the armor. Faire was the last one to get off, Romeo looked at the arm.

"Hey Princess, you sure that thing's water proof?" Faire didn't respond, but he could tell she was rolling her eyes. Romeo watched the ship fly away, Kingsly was a good pilot that was part of the reason they left the duffel bags on the pelican so it wouldn't slow them down, the only large object they carried was the radio transmitter Dutch brought, a large unit that could message to Kingsly's pelican, and to Cox. Romeo then heard his own COM unit acting up. It was Kingsly

"There's activity going on north of your location, I'd advise you to check it out." Buck nodded to the message.

"Let's head out, each of you needs to watch each other's asses." He said, the troopers looked to him.

"Dutch, you're on Faire, Mickey's on Victor, and Romeo… you're on me." He said. Romeo smirked.

"Wow, it's like you don't trust me." Buck didn't respond.

"Let's move out." They had started moving, Romeo looked to the sky to see UNSC pelicans flying through the air, and He sighed.

_Great, looks like we have competition_

ROOKIE

6 HOURS 10 MINUTES

"You're serious, right?" Alcatraz's voice buzzed in his ears.

"Yes, I won't let this happen because of me." Alcatraz slowly responded.

"… You really love pissing me off." James was somewhat, weirded out by Alcatraz's vocabulary at times, he spoke almost like an earthborn UNSC soldier.

"Only when necessary." Alcatraz then responded.

"FINE, but in that case I would advise you to steal a banshee." He then said. Rookie sighed.

"Sounds like a well thought plan, how would I do so?" He was carefully looking around for nearby covenant.

"See the top of that building? I'm scanning for covenant and some of their infantry vehicles are up there… Head up and make contact." He then said. Romeo tapped his helmet as a sort of acknowledgement. James approached the building; it was a tall building, maybe five stories up. It had that ceramic Forerunner finish about it, and there were no doors, just a simple archway into it. James passed through and entered. The inside was also very simple, a couple florescent lights, some metal tables; he saw very steep stairs to the side that ran up to the next stories.

_No elevator?_

James began to climb the stairs, having a feeling there was covenant around the building. He finally approached the next level and looked out into the hallway, some grunts were sleeping. James made sure to crouch around them silently, he slowly pulled his knife out, the blade looked sharp, although stained a small bit.

"Go for it, but be quick, I sense activity upstairs." James quickly got to the first one and stabbed the knife into the space between its head and torso, presumably the grunt's neck. The Alien quickly awoke but then James tore off its Co2 respirator, the thing quickly died. He proceeded to the next ones and then made his way to the next stairs; he looked to see a group of Covenant Brutes around what looked to be… engineers.

His mind flashed memories of Mombasa. He rubbed his head breathing heavily. They thought he was dead; part of that planet is dead… That whole damn continent was in flames right now. He felt his breathing staggering.

"James, focus." The brutes were putting strange devices on the engineers, bombs. Engineers were also capable of making shields, but it just seemed more convenient to make them suicidal.

"Of course, they're native here, they take care of the installation… try and save a couple, maybe they can help us." James nodded and proceeded towards the first of the three brutes He quickly stabbed it in the neck, and then hell broke loose, The brute pushed him away, bleeding heavily, it must have been an adrenaline rush, the Brute, enraged from this rushed towards him, immediately impacting James and throwing him towards the wall. He heard a crack which he could only tell was his spine, and looked to see his pistol slid away from him, and then the brute returned again. The other aliens only watched, not seeing the point of helping their comrade kill a worm. James struggled to get up and when he did rushed out of the way, impacting the brute again, the knife was still in lodged in it. James took the chance and jumped to it, the monster towered over him, as the others were in frenzy, James put his hand to the bloody knife and instead of pulling it out, he instead forced it around the things neck until all its blood seeped out and the only thing keeping the head attached was bones. The Brute died there, over him. James removed the knife, and slid away from the alien. And at this point the other Aliens were about to jump towards him. James took this moment to swipe the brute's plasma rifle and begun to fire on the brutes rushing towards him, it disabled one's shield and killed it, while the other got more enraged and begun to run all fours to him. James found a plasma grenade on the dead brute and started it. He quickly threw it at the rampaging brute and worked hard to run. After about three seconds the brute blew apart in blue fire. James shook and fell to the ground, the pain getting to him; he tossed his helmet away, not caring what Alcatraz would say. He slowly drifted into a strange half sleep.

_He was in that room again, surrounded by mirrors, he kept looking around them, the only thing he saw was a strange vomit brown fly trap… thing. _

"_Tick Tock… Tick Tock…" he heard in the distance. Then it grew louder, the mirrors started to disappear, one by one until only one remained. He looked into it and saw something, a man wearing ODST marine armor._

"_It's more than just dirt… it's our dirt." James knelt down, _

"_Gage?" Then the man quickly disappeared, replaced by something that looked like him… He started to change, warping into some kind of… thing. Its skin was Vomit colored and started running towards him, but ran into the mirror he started to bash towards it, until cracks appeared. The monster stopped, it had a sort of grin, and then pulled out a pistol, the one James dropped. It pointed towards him. It depressed the trigger, in slow motion a small fire erupted from the pistol, and James watched helplessly as the bullet crashed the mirror, and into his side. The Mirror shattered and James was forced through, the monster disappearing. He finally hit the ground hard, and felt blood trail out of his side. He heard footsteps around him, two figures, they were monsters though, but he recognized them, from that damn picture he kept all those years… 5 to be exact._

"_Why did you let us die? James…" They faded, leaving James alone in the darkness… with his tears._

THE UNSC SAY MY NAME

8 HOURS AFTER THE PROPHET OF TRUTH'S DEATH

Veronica Dare did not turn. Avery Johnson stood there, watching.

"How'd you see me?" Avery took a breath from his cigar.

"Not that hard, you were a bit on my mind." Veronica sighed.

"Buck… he still thinks-"

"He hasn't seen your dead corpse, and Cox said you were with him when the ship went down. So the only choice could be you disappeared." Veronica looked down, the armor she wore were from different sizes, and different variants.

"Have you heard the news? From the commander?" Johnson then added. Veronica slowly nodded.

"I heard a bit, now he's in charge… that's bad."

"Why? I trust him." Veronica turned towards him, her helmet depolarized, nobody was around and the cameras were off. The monitors flickered.

"Because he's ONI's man through and through. He has no respect for human life… not even his own."

"He's real good at hiding it then… it seems." Avery then added.

"He's real good at hiding a lot of things… Johnson." She then said back. The hardened sergeant sighed.

"ONI doesn't do these kind of things, take control of a mission… not unless its research, I half expected him to put you in charge." She said. Johnson sighed.

"Your ONI through and through, half the people on this ship are spooks…" Dare then turned away from him.

"Why are you hiding around? Afraid of encounters?" Dare shook her head.

"No… ONI works in the shadows to figure things out… and that's what I'm doing… I don't trust Cox, and frankly you shouldn't." She said. Johnson stared at her.

"The moment we start fighting among ourselves… that's when the Covenant wins."

"This is bigger than the COVENANT!" She found herself yelling. Johnson remained silent.

"This… ring world has the power to wipe out ALL LIFE… very much bigger." She said. Johnson stared down at her. Sure seemed very convinced in all of this.

"You need to figure out which side you're on… ONI's… or humanity." She said. And then she started to walk away. Johnson looked down, thinking.

"I won't tell Buck… but you need to come clean…" Johnson said, leaving Dare to her thoughts.

"…Noted."

ROOKIE

UNKNOWN TIME

James slowly opened his eyes, his vision was blurry. He looked forward and then saw a strange cyan blue armadillo head touch his hand. He slowly went to his knees. He was in the same room as before…

"You're up." Alcatraz's voice communicated, James saw that his helmet was attached to a strange monitor… made from parts of the dead Brute's armor.

"What happened?" James asked. Slightly recalling the strange dream he had, he looked up to the engineers around him. He then looked at his gauntlets, they were different.

"You were knocked out from the stress… something like that. You've been out for 10 minutes.

6 HOURS 20 MINUTES

"I see… and so the Engineers… took care of themselves?" James asked, finally standing up.

"You could say, I had a short chat with them, it seems they don't like these visitors just as much as I do."

"Is that good?" James asked, he looked around the room.

"Funny." Alcatraz then continued.

"They decided to help us out, upgraded your armor, now you have a very basic stealth field generator. It'll help you sneak up on the enemy… I'm still updating it however." Alcatraz said. James looked at his armor.

"So that would explain the changed bits?"

"…Yes, it would." James patted one of the engineers.

"Anything going on outside?" he asked.

"…Yes, Cox has just announced your betrayal to the entire human population on the ARK. You were correct in more humans coming here because of it." James looked down.

_Betrayal? Now they want me dead? This just keeps getting worse…_

"Damn it, then we need to get moving." He walked over to the monitor and grabbed his helmet, feeling a slight pain in his legs.

"Wait, give me one moment to-" At that moment He removed the helmet from the socket and plugged it into his suit on his head, Sending Jolts of electricity through his skull.

"Agh… fuck." James fell to his knees again."

"The helmet was also getting charged, and I was updating my neural link, so sorry if you… felt that." James slowly stood back up, Buck's helmet felt better to wear now.

"Isn't everything supposed to be up to date? Why do we have to update the software?"

"I'm pretty sure I already told you, there isn't a dedicated server around the ARK, no wireless. Just a command network, I can't update on that because Atlas will find me that way, and so it's better to find engineers for that job."

"Wait… wouldn't the engineers be connected to the network?"

"No, they're living creatures, Atlas doesn't command them on anything, the upgrades they have, are things they find, from my makers…" James felt an engineer do something with his back. He turned his head, bit couldn't see it.

"What was that?" He asked.

"Hm… The creature updated your COM system, you'll be able to listen to COM chatter… something I disabled, but it's fine." Alcatraz didn't seem to like this change of power, but he couldn't do much. He looked to the engineers, he patted one on the head.

"Thank you." One of the aliens responded with a

"Wyachew…"

"What?" James whispered.

"That was they're leader, A Bit Drift, he was accepting your thanks."

_A Bit Drift? The hell?_

James nodded and slowly headed to the stairs.

"They go straight to the top; you'll find what you're looking for."

"I intend to."

"Good, you remember why you're here." James didn't respond, he started walking up the stairs, looking back. The Engineers started toying with the makeshift intercom, they took apart and re-assembled it into one of the dead brute's armor.

"Why are they staying here? Shouldn't they go somewhere safe?" Alcatraz groaned.

"They don't know anywhere else safer… and they were bred to take care of this place… can't have it go to ruins just yet. It's far different then says… installation 04."

"You know about that?" James asked. He could feel cool winds creeping in.

"You're people shook up hell, that's the moment Atlas started preparing for your people's arrival. At first he wanted to let in the maker's successors… but then he realized how dangerous you are, destroying one of the rings…" James couldn't respond.

"I wasn't there… it'd be best to ask the chief."

"I know… that was why I was planning on him." James finally reached the top off the building, and looked out. The sky was cloudy; it had begun to rain a couple minutes ago. James slowly slid up onto the platform, the air was cold and brisk, he saw that there was a group of Brutes a hundred meters from his location; they seemed to be in a sort of standby stage. Alcatraz's voice started on his COM.

"I'll stay connected to the network; you'll have a map of the city." He said. James nodded.

"Thanks." He slowly started to walk towards the group.

"Did you get that active camouflage updated?"

"Yes, it won't last long, and it's not as… new as theirs."

"Can't make this too easy."

"Just get the job done." James nodded, he looked to his left gauntlet to see a small sort of button, he pressed it, it took a hard kind of press to force it down, his armor quickly started to fade, starting as his arms and then to the rest of his body. It reminded him of the stealth gear ODST's sometimes used. The rain was impacting harder, hopefully the covenant wouldn't see the rain drops randomly stopping mid air. HE approached the group of brutes, they seemed to enjoy the rain, one of them roared towards the sky. James quickly approached that one as he took a step and then kicked at his leg, causing the brute to fall down in sort a splint slipping. He quickly walked away; the brute looked towards its brethren. They had no clue what was going on.

_They can't know these ones are under attack_

"Can you jam their connections to the ship? But not make them disappear off the grid?"

"I can do better…" Alcatraz simply stated, He stood there for a moment, looking at the aliens.

"Alright, done, take them out." James nodded, he approached the brute again, it was inspecting the area, looking off towards the edge. James quickly approached it and pushed at the pathetic alien. The brute yelled as he fell off, followed by a crack. The rest of the aliens seemed in shock. James quickly approached them, about 4 left now. HE pulled out his already blood stained knife and started slashing at them. He quickly stabbed the knife into the leader's neck, followed by stabbed into another's leg. At this point his invisibility was down. He stabbed at another but it partly dented into the brute's armor plating. The alien, a greenish turquoise punched towards him. James quickly caught the arm and stabbed the knife down into it, then kicked it away, not enough time to get the knife back. One of the brutes was about to enter a banshee, James quickly grabbed it's leg and pulled at it as the brute flung out, then immediately James was kicked down by a red one. The alien kicked once at his head, pain spiraled into James's side. The alien returned its leg for another round, but before it could James rolled to the side and tripped it. He got back up and then punched towards another brute, the alien caught his hand, and he found this was the one he pulled out of the banshee. The alien pulled on his arm and threw him to the side. At this point his breathing staggered. The brute was about to get at him, but then James looked and saw it had a sheathed dagger on its leg. He avoided the attack and quickly pulled out the knife, and stabbed it straight into the leg. The brute squealed in pain and then quickly James pulled it out, stabbing once more at the neck. At this point the remaining two brutes were left, one in red armor, and the one he left his knife in. They both looked to him. The other one, wearing gray armor slowly pulled the knife out, it shook a little. James looked at the Brute knife he held, it was styled with a sort of strange notching on the sides. Designed to cause pain even when leaving the body. He paid attention back to the brute which begun with a punch towards him, he avoided and then kicked at the one with the knife. The red one pulled out a plasma rifle and fired towards him, finally finding sense. James saw his shields deplete, he kicked at the red one, causing it to drop the rifle in midair. James began punching towards it savagely. The brute stepped back, trying to avoid it but then quickly tried to return the favor, James avoided and then pushed violently at the alien, causing it to fall off the edge. The remaining brute quickly took this moment and stabbed at James's back.

"Agh!"

James quickly slashed the Brute's throat. He fell to his knees, breathing slowly. The Brute stared at him.

"You… Piece of shit…" James said. The alien didn't respond, considering its throat was overflowed with its own blood, it quickly mixed in with the rain, creating a horrid puddle. James breathed heavily, looking at the covenant knife in his hand, it was bulky and bloody. He slowly dropped it to the side

"You're vital signs have gone crazy…" James' arms twitched, his hand went to his back, and pulled out the knife. Pain went everywhere in his body

"AGH!" He yelled. He immediately felt rain start to enter the wound, feeling water enter the suit. Almost immediately he felt something in his back brace around the wound, stopping the water, the suit must have had some sort of filtration system to stop water. He stared at the knife, it didn't go in to far… maybe a centimeter… maybe two. He looked at his HUD, it was being updated with information on his back.

"Administering… morphine." Quickly the pain settled away. James stayed there for a moment. Alcatraz then said.

"You're very lucky… any closer and it would have punctured a major organ, I'll start the suit's healing process."

"What?" James found himself asking.

"Another one of the updates I got, I figured you would stabbed at one point… and seems my faith has been rewarded.

"Lucky you." James said sarcastically.

"The wound will be taken care of within an hour, feel free not to do anything too… strenuous, the suit can't repair itself, so you'll be open, just you'll have to rely on your shields." James slowly stood up. Feeling a slight pain in the back. He looked out over the city, reminded him a bit of those stories about Atlantis… probably from all the rain. He looked at the knife in his hand, it was bloody and gnarled, must have been ruined from the brute. He looked at it and quickly threw it, watching as some of his blood dripped from it, into the rain. James slowly turned away, towards the banshees, they were still docked.

"Remember what you came for." James slowly walked towards one of the banshees, and got into the cockpit. The HUD of the vehicle lit up.

"Have you ever driven one of these?"

"I think once… I'm a little rusty." James said, Alcatraz responded.

"Ok, I'll try and help with the controls." James started it. Now he had a viable way of getting to the Covenant cruiser.

"So what exactly is your plan?" James sighed.

"I was thinking about getting onto one of the cruisers, and crashing it into the fleets." James said.

"…Bad plan, I'll think of something, you just get to the cruiser." James nodded. He saw the nearest one… it looked to be capable of glassing. Banshees flew nearby, in the opposite direction. Something appeared on the screen. Two banshees fluttered near his own.

"They're trying to hail you, don't do anything, and let me handle it." Alcatraz said, the screen went black for a moment, and then a green light appeared. The two Banshees flew away, perhaps disappointed.

"They agreed to let you in, the ship you are about to enter is called Faith's Inheritor… I'll handle the hangar bay…" James looked to the nearby covenant cruiser, his ship slowly got closer, it was partly impacted by the rain. He saw in the distance some Pelicans.

_Nothing to worry about… hopefully they won't follow me._

The banshee got close enough to the cruiser, and then it entered the hangar bay, which had a small group of covenant aliens. He saw Grunts at turrets, Jackals loading into drop ships, Brutes were overseeing this. The banshee boosted a small bit and then landed. The hangar seemed like any generic alien room, purple, with bits of metal colored into the floor… What really bothered James was how easy this was, Was Alcatraz really that advanced? The Brutes looked towards his Banshee, guestured for him to exit, it'd be suicide taking on all of them, and so he did nothing. Alcatraz said he'd handle it…

"You gonna take care of them?" James asked. A Brute was walking towards his Banshee.

MICKEY

6 HOURS 30 MINUTES

Michael Crespo looked out into the city, it was very well… big… that was about all he could think to describe it, large buildings that seemed like boxes, while at the same time the ring in the Sky signified a sense of Armageddon. Quentin Victor walked by his side, clutching an Assault rifle. Buck had taken the lead, as they went through the streets; the rain took its toll. It impacted the strange cement quickly, creating puddles easily. But also on the ground was a sort of mist, perhaps from the speed of the impact. In the air they could see Covenant ships, a drop ship was flying nearby, they were obviously preparing for war, and Buck motioned for the group to enter a nearby alleyway.

"Damn it, the Covenant's regrouping here." Buck said. He groaned, and then looked to his team.

"We don't have time to mix in, we need to hail to command to end this bounty, or a lot of good men are going to die." He said. Romeo looked to him.

"I doubt our usual stuff can cut through this rain." He motioned to Dutch to open up his pack, and dropped his oversized COM unit to the ground, he motioned for Dutch walked over to block some of the rain. Quickly Romeo typed up a message.

"I'll send it to Puzzler… he'll know what to do." He said. Mickey watched him as he sent the message; Faire looked out of the Alleyway to the passing drop ships.

"This is bullshit." She groaned, Mickey stared at her.

"I know, but we don't have a choice."

"No… I mean the moment we come here to get James, it turns out the Covenant's regrouping here… seems pretty god-damn convenient." She spat. Mickey patted his hand on her right shoulder, she sighed.

"They pumped so much shit into me I can barely feel it." He looked at her arm.

"You wanted to get right into the action." She slowly shook her head.

"I wanted to find James… But even that isn't so easy…" Mickey needed to cheer her up, at least a little.

"I'm sure we'll find him." He could tell that wasn't the right way to answer, she rolled her eyes and faced the alleyway, the message was about through… well actually they were awaiting Puzzler's reply. Mickey breathed in slowly.

"No I mean… He had to of had a good reason… just give it some time." He said. She sighed, and then her right 'arm' pulled out a knife from her breastplate. She studied it.

"Nice knife." He said, she turned towards him.

"It was my dad's… a Christmas gift he gave me… before Reach's fall." She said. He sighed.

"Reach… That's when everything changed." He said. Covenant found it and glassed the planet. She slowly slid the knife back in.

"I know, and it led us here." She said, motioning towards well… the alleyway.

"An Alleyway?"

"No… just… never mind." She looked away, Mickey nodded. He leaned by the wall, and listened to the messaging.

"Sir, there is a large Covenant force here, we suggest retreat and move out." Buck said into the COM unit, he heard Cox's voice reply.

"Damn, how did they know we would come here? I'm partly inclined to retreat, but then the Covenant would have time to regroup and attack… something that could cost us the war." Cox said. Mickey looked out into the streets; tanks were starting to roll out.

"Sir, what do we do?" Cox sounded like he started pressing some buttons.

"All UNSC personnel, the search for AWOL Lance Corporal Dante has been postponed, we need to put our resources into the fore-runner city… all available units, prepare to engage hostiles." Mickey's eyes widened. The message ended.

"So now he's forcing us to fight the Covenant?" Mickey asked. Buck shook his head.

"He knows what's at stake here; we can't let the covenant take the city." Faire stared at him.

"Is this place seriously that important? It's just a bunch of metal buildings.

"Do you have any idea what's here? The covenant upgraded their arsenal with weapons they found here, think of what else they might find… maybe a game changer, the corps can't let that happen." Buck said. Romeo started putting the machine away, into Dutch's pack.

"So we are just gonna keep fighting till the last man standing?" Buck shook his head.

"No… that's another Soldier's job… we'll find Dante and get out of here." Romeo loaded his rifle.

"Terrific." The others started moving, except for Buck and Romeo, Faire stared at him and kept moving.

"You're a real piece of work Romeo, at least act like you care."

"Why? So princess doesn't lose her head over it? She already lost her arm." He chided. Buck shook his head.

"No, so I didn't lose my head over it, because taking your shit right now is already worse than back in Mombassa."

"I don't aim to disappoint." Romeo simply said, following the others. Buck watched, standing there for a moment, before following.

ALCATRAZ

6 HOURS 40 MINUTES

1 second

2 seconds

3 seconds

All the time in the world to make decisions. It was a simple network, the covenant made their systems to honor the gods, not surpass them, and frankly it was far more simpler then most of the stuff on the ARK. How the hell did he get into this situation, Alcatraz did his job, was it because of the mistake during a flood attack, which ruined the city that the Covenant now Orbits above? That's what the makers said, his judgment was flawed, he wanted to save more civilians from the attack, but it backfired and flood got on the fleeting ships. At this moment, after seeing him at fault, they took away his power… his domain, and instead created a new AI to take over. That decision took three seconds as well, Atlas immediately shot down the infected ships, their lasers cutting through them like butter, as Alcatraz was condemned to handle the files in the core, like a damn aristocratic secretary… he soon lost that privilege when Atlas took away access to the files… He could barely remember what they were about, he remembered every century to wipe his core of unneeded data, and stored it away, and now he was cut off from that, putting his last chance into some human. The brute crept towards the Banshee, Alcatraz started to think more.

_We're still in the ARK's atmosphere, I could try and empty the dock, but that'd be too much of a show._

…_I could disable the cameras and instead use the turrets to create a distraction… perhaps a bit too much._

_Or… I could start the thrusters on a nearby dropship… be a bit risky._

Decisions were not his strong suit, the brute inched closer to Dante, whom seemed prepared to open up the hatch and knife the brute… with the knife he didn't have anymore. HE weighed in his options, and then decided on a combination of the three, the dock's onboard AI messaged him.

"Are you a messenger of the gods?" it asked, the Covenant built their tech to imitate, it was quite sad.

"I am your lord's messenger, I am their voice." Alcatraz responded.

"I knew it." The foolish AI responded.

"Grant me control of your domain, so I may enlighten you all."

"…" The AI didn't respond, but Alcatraz quickly received the control he needed.

"Thank you… you will be rewarded for your faith."

(Thank you for reading up to this point, sadly I haven't gotten too many reviews, but it's probably different from part 1 where I was in a hiatus after 10 chapters, and was urged by everyone to keep going, and so I improved my writing in that time span (I was 14 when I started writing, 16 when I finished up part 1 and decided to make a part 2, I'm 17 now editing chapters I wrote over the last couple months) I'll probably have a bit of a hiatus by chapter 10, so maybe then I'll get more reviews, I know this is petty, but I really want opinions over my writing, and I'll still work on chapters 11 through 20 during that time period, as for opinions on this chapter I'll just say, I HATE writing for fore-runner characters, I feel like my writing doesn't do them justice and is just ridiculous, but it's the best I can do, so I'll have to just roll with it and try working on it more, I'm also highlighting James losing it, he has a sort of connection to the gravemind and it's associated with his guilt. Anyways, I went to see the Hobbit's midnight release here in my home town, I loved the movie, I've never seen Lord of the Rings, I'm waiting till I watch the whole Hobbit trilogy to watch LOTR, yes I know it's foolish, that's what my brother keeps telling me, but I'm going with it, please leave a review to comment on my "Foolishness" Or what you think of the story thus far.)


	8. Chapter 8

THE ROOKIE

6 HOURS 40 MINUTES

James sat in the banshee for a moment; it was docked in the covenant cruiser Faith's Inheritors. HE looked out the front view to see some of the grunt engineers get restless watching a banshee just sit there. One of the Brute Pilots started stepping towards him.

"Alcatraz? You gonna do something?" he got no answer, this wasn't going to end well. The brute got closer, maybe he could ram the banshee into it and then fire on the rest… that'd be a good plan except for all the turrets stationed inside, he'd be shred to pieces. But it was the only thing to go on, he put his foot to the thrusters about to push when suddenly he heard a click in his helmet.

"What?" Suddenly the thrusters on a nearby Drop ship started and rammed into the wall, causing a small explosion, then quickly the docking shields disabled and a powerful wind swept the dock. Also at the time the turrets started firing on each other.

"Alcatraz? What did you do?" James asked.

"I caused a distraction, get out of the banshee and head through the door, I'll update your NAV point." He said. James quickly obeyed stepping out, he felt the wind impact his armor viciously, and he felt somewhat light headed.

"It's not strong enough to take out humans and brutes, but for grunts it's child's play." Which was true, they were still in the ARK's Atmosphere, so this wouldn't be enough to force them out, but it still caused a great deal of pressure.

James quickly realized the light headed-ness came from the back of his armor, from the hole in his back, he felt a twinge of pain and then looked forward. He loaded a clip into his pistol and quickly ran to the door, avoiding the havoc in the bay. He found himself in an empty hall-way, clear of Covenant, it was purple with a metallic sheen everywhere.

"Don't they know how to decorate." He found himself saying, breathing deeply, the pressure got to him.

"I'll set up a NAV poin-… interesting." James kept walking.

"What? You find something?"

"Yes, I was going through they're data-base over Faith's Inheritors, they have human prisoners from an attack a couple hours ago." James listened keenly; he approached the end of the hallway, the door opened at his step. Along with it a NAV point. James thought on that.

"Go on." He asked.

"I suppose helping these soldiers might improve your image, and give you a little back up here… why don't you go help them." James looked into the next room, clutching his pistol. It was empty except for a console in the middle with a brute chieftain standing there. The alien turned his head towards Dante. James pointed his pistol.

"…Shit."

VERONICA DARE

UNKNOWN AMOUNT OF TIME AFTER MEETING WITH AVERY JOHNSON

Veronica walked out of the entrance… well the new entrance to the UNSC Say My Name, the impact tore a hole straight into engineering. She was on the steps to the Citadel. It was dark out with excavation torches lit everywhere.

_I need to take a look inside… but ONI guards are everywhere… and I'm not exactly alive._

The UNSC made sure they were not going to lose the citadel, Cox had done a good job managing the forces, better than what the board decided on. Though his decision to go after Dante puzzled her, she knew the team would take care. She wore differently assorted ODST armor, they were the same color, just each part were meant for different environments. She had to take what she could though, the UNSC was short on supplies, and she luckily found these in a storage room, most of the others were either ruined, in use, or on the other freighter. She looked towards the bridge to the Citadel, if she approached them she would be sent off, having no orders to be here, she would need to find another way. She looked t the side to hear a strange buzzing, no that wasn't buzzing, that was humming. It was a metallic sounding voice, humming to a strange song. She looked around, searching for the owner, she had a half a mind to fire her pistol. It was so damn dark, she couldn't see anything. She activated her VISR, finally she saw what it was.

"Oh… it's you." She simply stated, the owner of the voice was a metallic grey sphere with a blue eye-ball.

"Have we met, Reclaimer?" it simply asked. She shook her head.

"No… but I know a couple that know you." She answered back. It was 343 guilty Spark, the practical key to all of this… well until now. The sphere rotated around her.

"You are… Veronica Dare, of the Office of Naval Intelligence…" She didn't nod her head.

"You learn quickly… aren't you supposed to be on your new ring or something?" she asked, the sphere moved about and focused on the ring in the sky.

"I will return to my installation when the Index is retrieved… luckily I was able to calibrate it here, seeing as its own systems aren't in full operation… the soldiers are quite bothersome so I found a way to avoid-"

"You have a way into the citadel? That the corps doesn't know about?" she asked, cutting him off.

'Well.. yes." 343 replied puzzled. She nodded.

"Interesting." The sphere seemed confused.

"Why ask? Reclaimer?" It stated. She looked around. Nobody was nearby.

"Because I'm supposed to be dead, and I need to get into the core…to talk with Atlas." She said. The sphere fluttered around her.

"You doubt your commander?" she sighed.

"I think he's a moron, and has no idea what's going on… I need to get in there, what can I do for you?" She asked. The sphere flew towards the wreckage. Surveying it.

"I seek information of your species' plight." It stated. She looked up to it. The drone turned.

"I tasted a sample of the information, on my old installation, but most of it was deleted for your 'COLE PROTOCOL'." He said. She stared at it for a moment.

"Didn't the UNSC promise you this data?" She asked. The unit didn't move. This information it was asking for was important, but there'd be no point concealing it now.

"No… perhaps they don't trust me… which is quite believable." It said. She sighed for a moment, and then nodded.

"I have access to that data on the ship, you get me in to talk with Atlas, and then later I'll get your data." She said. The sphere didn't respond, but flew down towards the ground.

"Follow… reclaimer." She saw it was going under the light-bridge.

DUTCH

6 HOURS 50 MINUTES

Taylor Miles loaded his assault rifle, Romeo seemed somewhat eager to not fight to covenant. Buck kneeled by the alleyway to look out over the streets of the fore-runner city. He looked disappointed looking in.

"It's flooded with Covenant…" Romeo seemed annoyed.

"You think? What do we do now?" Buck shook his head.

"We find another way." He said. Romeo only looked away, then towards the streets. Dutch stood there for a moment, thinking on this.. He then looked around the alleyway and saw something.

"Over here." He walked to the end of the alleyway and then moved to the side, there was a square plate, covering a hole that went into the wall, looked to be 1 meter by 1 meter. HE knelt down and moved the plate to the side, trying his best not to make a sound. Inside the hole was clear darkness. Buck looked at it. He then motioned to the others.

"Alright, we take this route into the buildings, then we make more distance between us, and them." he said. Dutch nodded, he crouched down. He slowly walked his way through, followed by Buck, then Romeo, then the others. It must have been a shaft of some kind to help ventilate the building, or something that allows engineers to enter inside of it. Dutch saw some light at the end and they quickly got to it. They were now in a room of one of the buildings. The room was empty, however there were stairs that went up. Buck looked up to them.

"Head up them, I don't want to risk the streets." These buildings seemed so strange, they screamed alien, but they also felt familiar… maybe that was just a link between humanity and forerunners. He never thought much on this kind of stuff, but it did fuel his curiosity. Buck hurried up them, followed by the rest, Dutch took the back of the group. He heard footsteps and saw Covenant forces start to enter the building. They had weapons out and everything, going in to try and find them. His VISR mode was on and had them highlighted RED, for hostiles.

"We got company!" Dutch began, he fired towards two grunts, one bullet managing to his it's leg, the other missing and going into the wall. More were entering the entrance; others were also coming through the hole they got in from.

"Up the stairs, make them fight us." Buck ordered. The others acknowledged, while Dutch got the other grunt. He finally reached the top of the stairs, well of that set, they were now on the next level. Brutes began climbing the stairs, with jackals using shields. Buck pulled out a frag grenade and dropped it to the steps, with a 'ping'.

"Fire in the hole…" Dutch sighed.

"Well aren't you a pro." The grenade went off, blowing the brutes climbing up the stairs down, Romeo leaned in with his sniper rifle and started firing. They could hear activity outside; the covenant knew where they were. Quickly the metallic gray room started to look grimmer. Buck sighed, an then looked to the troopers.

"We'll have to stay here for a bit… seems we don't have a choi-"

"Grenade!" one of the other five troopers said, as a blue plasma grenade impacted the ground from one of the nearby windows. Dutch jumped to the side, getting out of the radius, the grenade went off, and leaving a pit of smoke in the room. Victor looked to Dutch.

"Well this sucks."

Dutch nodded in agreement. Mickey hurried to the windows and looked out.

"We got more incoming; some of them are starting to go up other buildings." He said. Faire loaded her shotgun. Dutch looked to her.

"You're with me." He simply said, she nodded. They hurried up the stairs, Mickey fired on the outside with Victor beside him. Buck stayed by the stairs for any outside forces, and Romeo was busy sniping forces from both the window, and the stairs. Dutch hurried up the stairs, followed by Faire, at the top was a small group of grunts about to go down. He pointed his pistol to take count, There were roughly 5 of them. Dutch quickly shot four rounds towards one of them, and then kicked another down the stairs, Faire followed suit by blasting into the last three. Dutch then noticed how steep the stairs were.

"It's probably really hard for them to go up." He said, Faire nodded.

"So it'd be a great idea to shoot them from the top, or from the bottom." She said, Despite her injury, she seemed to be doing well. She must have her mind set on work. HE acknowledged that, then they quickly looked around the room, it was empty, except for a walkway into one of the next buildings. Dutch looked to her.

"Wanna try that way?"

BUCK

Eddy Buck stood by the staircase looking down, brutes were starting up the staircase, and Victor had moved to help him defend while Romeo took up his place at the windows with Mickey. Buck fired his Assault rifle into another brute, disabling its shields, while Victor shot in with a BR, tearing it apart. Victor looked to his commanding officer.

"We can't keep this up forever." He said. Buck slowly nodded.

"Your right, we need air support." He said, and quickly put his hand to his COM.

"Buck to Puzzler, we need help, can you go to our coordinates?" He asked. On the other side came.

"I could try, but I'm under fire, and you'll need to disable any AA tanks in the area, they'll shred through me like butter." The COM session ended.

"Romeo, Mickey, focus your fire on the AA tanks, Puzzler's on his way." Buck ordered, and then returned to the stairs. Victor fired on another grunt, and then threw a frag grenade towards the group, the rest were quickly blown away. Buck fired on the remaining. Buck looked back to Romeo and Mickey who would peak out of the windows to fire on hostiles. Buck noticed that it was still raining hard out there. Obscuring their vision.

"Team, make sure to use your VISR's, it's dark as hell." Buck ordered. He looked to Victor.

"Let's head down the stairs, try and fight them off." Buck said, Victor nodded. They reloaded their rifles and rushed down the steps, firing on Covenant near the doorway. Buck fired towards another brute, disabling it's armor and then shot it through the head. He reloaded hs assault rifle and the two hurried towards the doorway. The AA wraiths were focused on the windows, waiting for a peak. These were some of the upgraded ones that returned to the city, able to fire longer bursts of plasma, like a scarab. Buck started his COM.

"Romeo, Mickey.. if we flank the tanks, will you take them out?" There was silence for the moment, and then Buck saw the AA wraith fire towards the window. He could only assume they peaked out. There was still nothing on the other end, Buck swallowed, they can't be dead… can they?

"Yes… gunny, we'll try." Mickey responded, coughing. HE was glad to hear Mickey respond then Romeo, Romeo had been very irritable. Buck nodded. He looked to Victor.

"Alright, we fire on the group of grunts, then take cover by the alleyway." He said. Victor nodded.

"You got it sir." Buck looked to him, and held his hand out, three fingers pointed outwards, he then rocked his fist down and it went to two, and then to one, after that he formed his fist together and rocked it down, immediately Buck poked out of the doorway, firing on the group of grunts, Victor followed him utilizing a Battle rifle, the rounds hit and impacted the grunts, they were starting to move left towards the alleyway, Buck realized the grunts were already down, so he made a new target. A brute captain who was leading the tanks, almost immediately the brute got behind cover and the tanks turned their direction, firing off green spazzes of plasma. Buck ran, leaped to the ground, feeling his armor skit across the strange fore-runner metal, Victor got into the alleyway, couldn't move, he felt plasma impact the back of his armor, He groaned and then stared at the tank. It was about to fire. At that point Victor pulled at him, skidding him into the alleyway. He recognized the darkness and looked to Victor.

"Agh… my back." He groaned. Victor looked at it.

"Doesn't seem too bad, I'll get some morphine from my pack." Victor quickly pulled out the needle, and pulled Buck's helmet off, he stabbed the needle into his neck.

"Agh.. damn… ah… that's better… you're a real lifesaver… thanks Quentin." Buck found himself saying, he realized how sweaty his hair felt under the helmet, he needed a haircut. Victor nodded.

"You're welcome sir-" An explosion followed, then another. Buck looked out.

"Good sons of bitches." He said, slipping his helmet on. He looked out the alleyway to see Romeo and Mickey in the window fighting.

"You know… they really do listen." He said. Victor nodded. Firing towards another group of covenant, Buck put his hand to his COM unit.

"Puzzler, the tanks are down, but we still got some hostiles in the nearby buildings."

ROOKIE

7 HOURS

ON THE SHIP FAITH'S INHERITORS

James Dante found himself staring at the brute chieftain, the monster was twice his size and triple his strength, even with the suit. This wasn't going to turn out well. The monster stared at him, and then stood up, in its right arm it held a Gravity Hammer, it was styled like an axe, with a piercing blade on the other side, James remembered how Romeo got injured by one of them back in Mombassa. The chieftain began to take steps towards him, one, then two, then three… by the fourth it was an all-out sprint. James' mind sped on what to do.

_I could trip him… no rope, and all I have is a pistol with like 20 rounds and a plasma rifle?... plasma rifle_

James pulled out the aforementioned rifle and fired on it, not at all causing it to lose momentum as it pulled it's arm's back for a swing, James sought to avoid it and jumped to the side, but immediately felt the hammer's unrelenting force(See what I did there?) impact him and threw him to the side like a rag-doll. James quickly impacted the wall of the room, luckily this time he didn't hear a crack. The brute turned to him and quickly ran towards James, whom struggled to get up, this wasn't going to end well, Chieftains could take a lot of shots, and James didn't even have a knife, he discarded the old one he used when it was bloody and bent. The Brute swung towards him, James ducked and kicked at the brute's knees, doing no damage, the brute quickly pushed him against the wall again about to swing, James inched to the side, avoiding the hammer's blow, instead it impacted the wall, and from it one of the plates on the wall fell off and was replaced with wires. Probably the circuits from the ship, James immediately got an idea. The Brute slung his hammer towards him again, James avoided, going infront of the wires, the brute then went with a stabbing motion towards James, whom ducked, the hammer jammed into the wires. And shocked the brute. The electrical discharge also pushed James back. The brute hit the panel he was on; the hammer remained in the wall. James slowly got up, breathing. His armor wasn't power proof. The Brute stared at him and started running towards him. James looked to the hammer and quickly put his hands towards it, he immediately felt the shock from the circuits get him.

"Agh." He groaned, he pulled the hammer out and swung towards the brute. The force hit and threw the brute back, James looked at the hammer for a moment, it seemed relatively new. This was a new chieftain, he hurried towards it and slammed the hammer towards it again, he repeated this three times, and then on the fourth the brute didn't move. He knelt down beside it. It was dead. James slowly stood up, and put the hammer to the magnets on his pack, it fit perfectly. He stood there for a moment, he didn't know how long, but for a while, he slowly turned back, and putted his hand to his Helmet.

"Alright… where are those soldiers?" James breathed quickly, after about a minute his mind slowed down to its regular speed. Alcatraz replied.

"They're in the prison bay, the Covenant have put them on row for execution tonight, which means they'll be prepared for anything they pull… I'll add the NAV point." He said, an arrow appeared in front of a nearby door, James looked to it.

"So I suppose you are limited in control of the ship?" James asked. Alcatraz slowly replied.

"Somewhat, most roles are given to Covenant forces and not the ship board AI, they believe that AI can be crafty… in a sense they can, but some of them do have access to certain ship board functions, such as security, but never actual control of the ship, not unless it was relinquished by a user." James passed through the door, it was interesting to learn about this… at first he planned to go to college about this… stuff…

James felt a throbbing pain in his head.

_You're not going into the military and that's final!_

His breathing staggered, that was the last thing he ever heard from his father… he should of stayed. And now Alcatraz was an active reminder of the life he gave up, he could have been the next Halsey… well maybe that was pushing it too far. .. Maybe he could go into college once they got back, he's been in service long enough… maybe Anne could go with him and… Anne? Anne Faire would definitely not want to see him, after all he did. Considering all, she should hate him, and he wouldn't blame her. He kept walking through the ship, towards Alcatraz's NAV point, with a couple extra soldiers, he would have better chances of surviving. He stood at the door, and breathed for a moment.

"How close are we?"

"Too close, the Covenant found the bodies and what I did in the docking bay, they're covering the whole ship."

"Knew this wasn't going to be too easy."

FAIRE

7 HOURS 10 MINUTES

Dutch was right behind me as I headed up the stairs, I could hear activity in the other buildings, Covenant was busy entrenching into them. I look out a nearby window and I see tanks engaging the lower window occupants of this building, namely Victor, Mickey, and special guest Romeo. I fired on a grunt that was crossing over. Dutch nodded to me as I scurried across the walkway into the other building, it was a thin strip of metal. Dutch stared at the walk way, and then to me. I could get across due to my small frame, but Dutch might have trouble.

"Watch my back." HE said. I nod and pull out my pistol, keeping watch on the window. I fire on a grunt I could see from the adjacent building, Dutch seemed to shake as he waddled across the thin strip of metal. I looked out to see a drop ship in combat with a pelican, causing the drop ship to crash towards the ground. It made the ground tremor and Dutch shake.

"Agh." HE groaned. I looked to him and see more Covenant going through the buildings. The pelican in question then crashed shaking the ground again, Dutch slipped, causing him to fall off, he quickly grabbed for the metal walkway and caught it, holding for dear life. I looked to him.

"Just work your way over here, I'll help you." I said to the veteran, he slowly nodded and started working his way towards me; he was about a yard away. I see more Covenant troops coming near, and so I started firing on them, the Grunts in the group fell apart, I breathed and fired on another, Dutch had about made his way towards me, I heard an explosion erupt from the tanks outside; they must have been taken out. I reached for Dutch, with my right 'arm' he was about to take it when I felt something slam into the building, a pelican. The building shook and Dutch's grip wavered. I looked to him.

"Take it!" I yelled, I quickly grabbed my right arm, and I started pulling him in.

"AGH!" I yelled from the pain, I had just gotten this thing literally hours ago, and now I could feel it partially pulling apart. I pulled him in and then as he fell onto the ground I fell back to the wall, my breathing increased. He looked at me, he then removed his helmet. We could hear turret fire on the other side of the building. God the damn pain, I could feel bleeding.

"Your arm?" I slowly nodded. I wore a modified ODST infiltrator variant, with a missing right arm slot, we had instead opted to put a metal casing over the arm to protect it from fire and bullets, but it made heavier, and pulling a grown man with 100 lbs. of supplies? That's almost enough to tear it off… well if I had opted to have the surgery and let the stump grow into it more, that might have improved the reliability. Dutch looked to me, and then messaged Buck.

"Gunny, Faire needs medical attention, is Puzzler out there? I think there's a medkit in the pelican, get it, and make your way here." He said into his helmet. I breathed deeply; I looked to my side and already see the blood seeping from the stump. I felt nauseous again, like when I accepted the surgery so I could go straight into this mission… this was a mistake. Dutch pulled out a cloth from his pouch and opened up my armor from the top right part, he quickly rapped the cloth around my stump, stopping the bleeding, for now. I closed my eyes. Part of me just wanted to die, accepting help… not really my thing.

"Thank you… by the way." Dutch said simply, I looked to him.

"Welcome…" I look at my arm; I twiddle one of the fingers, feeling a slight pain. Dutch could see it on my face, he dove into his pack, and pulled out a medical needle.

"I got some morphine, want a bit?" he asked. I slowly nodded, moving my left hand to remove the helmet, he stabbed the needle into the space between my neck and torso, I breathed deeply and then released when he pulled it out.

"Thanks… fuck." I panted, my hair felt like a sweaty mess. He nodded.

"When they get here, let's patch up that arm, and see if you're up to anything." He said, I nodded. He stood up, putting his helmet back on; I look to my arm to see the bleeding wasn't as bad, I'd still need that med pack. I sighed and then looked to him.

"How'd you know exactly what to do?" I asked, kind of puzzled, Dutch breathed, looking down. He stood there for a moment, and then breathed out.

"I have a wife, lot like you, excited to get into these kinds of missions, deep into enemy territory, one time… we were fighting innies, you know damn terrorists… she got hurt bad… and I helped her… we got her out, I promised myself to keep fighting… for her… you know." He said, I stared up at the seasoned soldier.

"I'm so sorry… she must be an amazing woman." I said. Dutch has a wife? She seems to be his muse to keep fighting, what the hell do I have? Dutch nodded.

"I'm sure she'd love to meet you… she actually opted to get the surgery you got… I wouldn't have any of that… Least not yet, she came around, and actually wanted me to retire… I'd have none of that either." I slowly nod.

"My parents were in the military… they died on Reach." Dutch sighed, and patted me on the left shoulder.

"They'd be proud."

MICKEY

7 HOURS 10 MINUTEs

Michael Crespo crouched by the window looking out, they took out the tanks and now Puzzler was nearby firing on Covenant hostiles. Mickey held a battle rifle in his hands, he fired out towards nearby forces, and they were winning so far. Romeo was with him firing with his sniper rifle, while Victor was down a level with Buck. Finally at one point the fighting stopped, the Covenant gave up and retreated. Mickey sighed and looked out through the scope of his rifle.

"They're going… I guess Puzzler can land now." Mickey said, Romeo nodded.

"Guess he can." They saw the pelican start to lower to the ground in the middle of the street.

"Gunny, Faire needs medical attention, is Puzzler out there? I think there's a med-kit in the pelican, get it, and make your way here." Mickey heard on his COM unit, it was Dutch. Buck responded.

"Very well, he's just landed… Mickey, Romeo, get down here." Mickey stood up, and headed towards the stairs down, Romeo followed.

"Faire got hurt? What do you think happened?" Mickey asked. Romeo sighed.

"I think she was starting to feel a bit useless and took one for the team." Mickey stared at him.

"Dude… what the-"

"Kidding, it's probably minor." Romeo said, stopping Mickey. HE sighed.

"Boy aren't you a team player…"

"Right about the last part, come on." Romeo said, taking the lead. The walked out of the doorway to the street. The Pelican had landed; Mickey noticed that part of it looked slightly broken, around one of the wings.

_So that's what rammed the building._

Tom Kingsly was out of the ship minding the repairs. He seemed in a slightly sour mood. He turned and changed his expression. He held a fusion cutter in one hand.

"Good to see you guys, I'll just fix up a couple wires while you get that med pack." He said. Buck walked into the pelican and pulled out a large red and white pack. ODSTs were assigned a member to have a pack containing a med-pack, Rookie was theirs, and as far as Buck is concerned still is. He handed it to Mickey.

"You take it to her." He said, Mickey slowly nodded, he then sighed.

"Sir, I think we need better weapons for this kind of job." He said, Buck nodded.

"I see… maybe we could-" Kingsly cut him off.

"There should be some RPGs under one of the seats, also some extra clips." He said while working on the wing. Mickey nodded.

"Okay…" he entered the pelican and pulled out rocket launcher, it only had 6 rockets.

_Better make good use out of it_

Mickey dropped the pistol he had and then strapped the rpg to his back. He walked out holding the medpack.

"Alright, I'll get going… where are they?" Mickey asked. Buck pointed to the adjacent building.

"Be careful, might be some structural damage." He said. Mickey nodded, he was about to walk away.

"Oh and take Victor with you." Mickey stopped. Victor walked beside him.

"Alright, let's head in." Mickey said. He hurried to the building in question, it was about as large as the building they were in, but there was a difference, a large dent in the wall.

_Must have been from the pelican_

They headed into the room to see familiar grey but also blue blood. Victor looked around and headed to the stairs.

"Keep your eyes open, there might be a couple live ones." Mickey held his rifle to his side, the medpack clutched in his left arm, and the rifle on his right. Victor headed up the stairs, and then motioned Mickey to follow, they kept going like this until they reached the top of the building, Mickey walked around.

"Faire, Dutch? Anyone?" He called out.

"Over here!" a voice yelled out, Victor nodded and headed to the source of the voice. They reached the owner to find Dutch knelt by a familiar red haired girl. Mickey smiled slightly.

"How are you feeling?" she scowled.

"It fucking hurts… what do you think?" she asked. Mickey noticed then that her arm was simply a stump with a metal band around it. There was blood around a piece of cloth. Dutch was holding the extension of the stump, the robot arm. Mickey opened the med-kit and started tending to the stump.

"Alright, looks fine, just seems to be some tearing, I'll apply some of the salve." Mickey said, she clutched her teeth together, afraid of the pain. She was a strong girl.

"You know… Rookie always hated needles." He said, she stared at him; he sighed and then started applying the salve, Victor studied the right arm that Dutch held.

"Any damage with that?" He asked. Dutch sighed.

"A little wiring issue, I got it handled…" Victor smirked.

"Too soon man." He chuckled slightly. He looked to Mickey who then started rapping the stump with bandages. He heard in the distance the pelican starting up. Buck spoke on the COM.

"We'll make our way to you, look to the south most window." Buck said. Dutch acknowledged. Mickey finished up with the wrapping.

"Alright, give a little time, maybe a couple hours, then try putting the arm back on." He stared at him and slowly started standing.

"Wow easy now." He grabbed her left shoulder, she stood up and pushed his hand away.

"I'm fine… don't need two hands to use a pistol." She said. She knelt down to her removed armor and started putting it back on, without the arm, she worked hard to be independent. Mickey sighed.

"Suite yourself…" She looked to Dutch, whom was still holding the metal arm.

"I guess I can't have that back yet… huh." She said. he slowly nodded.

"Yeah… I'll hold onto it for a while." He said, she groaned. They looked to the nearby window(also southmost) to see the pelican fluttering there. Faire quickly picked up her pack and started towards the window, reaching it first, the others followed behind, Romeo looked to her, she stepped onto the aircraft. The pelican instantly shook. She fell back to the window, gathering her bearings. It was a covenant banshee flying through, two others by it, using fuel rods. Buck turned.

"We have a fight, get behind cover!" he yelled. Faire did so, along with Mickey, the pelican showed burns on it. It turned towards the action, firing the turret one of the three banshees. Mickey stayed in cover for a moment when Buck spoke on the COM.

"They're fast, are those the lock on models?" Buck asked. Mickey looked through the RPG on his back, it was. He pulled it out, aiming towards the banshee which was taking another shot at them. he locked on and fired, going through the banshee, it fell to the ground in a heap. Victor fired his BR towards another Banshee, causing it to target him. Mickey fired into it, blasting it into scrap. One more to go. Faire ducked out of cover to fire on the last one, having trouble with her aim. Mickey couldn't lock on, it was too far away, it was approaching him. He reloaded the rockets and fired towards it, the banshee flipped around the rocket. Dutch fired towards it with his SMG and then the turret fired towards it again, causing the banshee to shake to the side from a damaged thruster. The banshee then flung itself into the wall, falling apart. That was all of them. Mickey putted his RPG away. The Pelican lowered again, Kingsly then said.

"Get on, I can see more coming. " Faire stepped towards it again, Romeo offered his hand.

"Need a little help, Princess?"

She didn't respond, walking by him and sitting down. Victor got on next, followed by Mickey, then Dutch. The Pelican quickly began moving, Mickey could see banshees following. Dutch got on the turret, firing towards them. One broke apart while the other shot a fuel rod, the pelican dipped upwards, shaking everyone. The banshee lost interest and turned away, It was over. Buck seemed happy.

"Hell of a show." Puzzler sighed.

"Sorry if one of you threw up, I'm usually better then this." Buck nodded.

"I bet…" He trailed off and then looked to Faire, who was glaring down the other seat, which was empty. HE slowly sat down in it.

"You're gonna have to stay in here." She stared at him.

"What? This is my fight too." Buck shook his head.

"I know… but with one arm, atleast for a while… you'd only hinder us." She stared at him, giving an icy glare. The pelican kept moving, the rain was continually being wiped away on the windshield.

"Then give me something I can do to help." She said. Buck stared at her for a moment, and then went to Kingsly. Mickey sat down, beside Dutch, who putted the arm in a duffel bag.

"Kingsly… you had issues covering us with the turret when we were under attack, as I recall you banged into the building… also that dipping upwards…" He said. Kingsly didn't like where this is going.

"What do you want?"

"How good a shot are you?"

"Fairly decent…" Buck then went to Faire.

"From what I understand you graduated at the top of your class in vehicle expertise and maintenance?" He asked, she nodded.

"I did." Buck then looked to Puzzler.

"She drives, you shoot." HE said. Tom Kingsly stared at him.

"You serious, right?"

"Yes I am. Turrets need two hands, ships themselves just need one arm, and voice commands. Seeing as she is more qualified, and you happen to have two hands, we can work out a little arrangement." Buck said. Tom stared at him… Mickey looked to Faire, and then to Kingsly, then finally to Buck.

"Any issues?"

ROOKIE

7 HOURS 30 MINUTES

James Dante slowly walked into a room which seemed to be the ship's prison bay. He held the newly acquired Plasma rifle in his hands and fired on a brute in grey armor, the warden it seemed. The Brute's armor went down and quickly the thing fell apart, there were two other grunts in the room but James quickly fired from his pistol bringing them down. HE breathed in slowly, sheaving the pistol and lowering the plasma rifle, the hammer attached to the magnets on his pack. He looked to the cells, they had Human Marines trapped in them, the men quickly shot up.

"Wow, didn't expect anyone to come looking for us." They said. James didn't respond, he then noticed Elite prisoners among them, They didn't say anything. James headed to the console. It was an assorted array of a couple holo-buttons. Alcatraz spoke up.

"Let me handl-"

"No just… translate it." James simply said. Alcatraz didn't respond, and instead worked with the AR function on his Visor.

"Okay, try it."

James looked to the buttons, there were four of them, arranged into a square. They read

CELL CALL

INPUT DELETE

James realized what they meant, Cell… obviously the cells, call would patch him to the captain or another part of the ship, Input would be something used to connect to the console, say a keyboard, and Delete, that must have meant execute prisoners. He selected CELL. HE heard a slight ring from the console then it switched to another screen with more alien Gibberish, which quickly translated to OPEN, EMPTY, and GAS, James selected OPEN, and then selected the cells in question. Quickly the cells started opening . He stepped away from the console and approached the cells, there were four cells, one empty, one containing a human, two humans in one, and two elites in the last… five souls, that'll do, James looked to them, They walked out of their cells, to see their savior. He slowly found words.

"There's a battle going down on the ground, I need to take this ship over, and do whatever it takes for us to win… I'm gonna need you." HE said. The Marines saluted, not asking for rank, one was a Sargent, like Johnson. He looked to the elites. They didn't respond, simply, nodded their heads. The Sargent then said.

"What good will one ship do?" stared for a moment. What would the ship do? Crash? That was really up to Alcatraz. James slowly responded.

"I'm not sure… but it's better than just going back down there to die." James said, with a slight sigh. The man nodded, not responding. James then looked to them.

"Getting here I passed a weapons cache, let's get you guys outfitted and back into the fight." He said regressing into the entrance, one of the marines eyed the covenant Hammer on his back.

FAIRE

7 HOURS 30 MINUTES

I relaxed me grip on the controls, I shouldered the COM headset to my ear and then spoke into it.

"Power fluctuates at 64 percent, dedicate 46 to flying and 18 to defense protocols." The pelican acknowledged and I got slightly more power. I turned my head slightly towards the occupants.

"Kingsly what'd you do to the power?" the former pilot looked at me, and groaned.

"The batteries got damaged in the impact; maybe we'll find some more at our destination." I looked to the city, as he said it… this was a large town… damn.

"Speaking of which… where are we going, Buck?" I asked looking back to the controls. Buck sighed.

"We need to find a nice place to settle down the pelican, how about that tower?" He pointed towards a large obstruction in the city; it definitely reminded me of the skyscrapers I saw on a trip to New York once. A couple blocks south of it was some kind of vehicle graveyard.

"Alright, I'll land close to the ground, you guys get off, and we'll scout out." I said. I could feel a slight twinge of pain from my arm… well my stump. The morphine was definitely helping, I'd probably be writhing in pain right now... The ship lowered and the team quickly got out, we were at the entrance of the tower. Buck was the last to get off, telling me to be careful and to warn him of anything. I acknowledged and started returning the bird to air. We were about 1000 meters into the air I looked towards the team, they were preparing to enter the structure. I turned the pelican towards the north end of the city, there was a somewhat large Covenant fleet in the distance, Kingsly looked to me.

"So… how long would you give it until they full on attack?" I groaned.

"Maybe an hour… come on, let's go scrounge that junk." I said nodding towards what looked to be a vehicle graveyard. Tom stared at it.

"Hm, that must have been where the coveys started upgrading, and there's also some downed pelicans too…" I breathed out slowly.

"Yeah… we get variety."

HERESY'S BANE

7 HOURS 10 MINUTES

"A gift from your gods." The voice said, Shalym stared at the program.

"Identify yourself, program." It did not answer.

"I am fore-runner, and part of what was left behind… like your dead leader, Truth." Shalym felt a twinge of anger from that last statement.

"How dare you…"

"Let it go, he's dead… and he deserves no pity… but you… I read up on your history, is it truly, the age of reclamation?" The program asked. Shalym slowly nodded.

"Yes… it is… it will soon end, when we enter the citadel."

"But until then… perhaps a different strategy will be needed…" Shalym did not respond.

"Your forces… are in disarray, you need to take them to a place where you can organize… relax… I'm sure you know the place, it's where you stole some of my data…" Shalym shook.

"Your data? It belongs to our lords, and like you, a gift from them!" Shalym answered.

"But… isn't it sacrilegious, to use these weapons?" It asked then. Shalym looked away.

"No… in order… to combat heresy… we must heresy, they cancel each other out." He rambled.

"Quit avoiding the answer… I can cripple this ship, send it towards a nearby sun, or perhaps crash it into the ARK, like I did with the humans… so please, listen… follower." Shalym looked down; some of the grunt engineers were looking at him strangely.

"Get back to work!" he yelled.

"Yes holy one." Shalym looked back at the program. It crashed the human's ship?

"You did that…" The program responded.

"Yes… I did, so consider me, an important ally."

"I'm listening…"

"Good… order your troops to take full control of the city, you know the one, kill anyone within it, take your time to organize your troops, prepare for an actual attack… then I could simply disable the humans' ships, and the citadel would be yours for the taking… will you obey… or should I make this choice harder for you…" The brute chieftain from before returned, stepping towards Shalym, whom remained in his seat. The brute kneeled on one knee, hands on a gravity hammer.

"Have you made up your mind?" The program asked once more, the brute then spoke, oblivious to the program.

"Prophet… where should we send our forces?" Shalym turned looking towards the brute. This program was a terrorist, using fear to take control… but if he was to take Truth's place… he had to accept that…

"Into the city, organize and take over… keep control of the situation… destroy all opposition… there, wait, for my command." The Brute looked up towards the prophet, and then rose.

"Your will is my command… your holiness." The alien stood up and started walking away. Shalym didn't look back towards the program.

_I like the sound of that._

"Such… useful creatures, gets us far more results then the sangheli… What do you call yourself?" Shalym turned on the last part.

"I am called Cyliam… or in the human's language, Atlas."

ROOKIE

8 HOURS

James had quickly gotten the three marines outfitted with plasma pistols and rifles, the elites each grabbed an energy sword from storage and two needlers. These people adjusted well, deciding not to ask questions at the moment. The sergeant from the group's name was Evans, there was a corporal whom went by Kyle, and finally a private named Deely. The elites didn't seem interested in sharing their names. James approached the end of the hallway they were in, it lead into a large room that would lead into the bridge, he looked to the men.

"Ready?" He asked. They nodded gripping their plasma weapons. James, whom was equipped with a plasma rifle, a silenced magnum and also the gravity hammer approached the door, it opened. James then looked out into the room. It was large, looked to be a sort of… well he wasn't sure what it was for, the walls were deep covenant violet, and the floors kinda looked like plastic, the room had roughly ten brutes, 6 jackals, and 20 grunts. They were all in small groups looking out towards the doorways. They were obviously here as a line of defense for the bridge. James and the five skidded for cover behind a railing that was there. Deely looked to him.

"How do we take this?" he asked, James breathed.

"I'll sneak up and stick them, I'll then want all of you to throw one plasma, and either aim for the brutes, the grunts, or the jackals." He said, the marines nodded. James' cloaking activated, he started stepping towards the brutes, there were roughly three per group and one golden brute that led them. James prepared the plasma grenade and threw towards the golden. The grenade stuck and detonated. But it didn't kill the brute, which just stared at James. It started firing it's plasma rifle.

"Attack!" James yelled jumping towards cover. Within the next ten seconds the room practically fell apart, the other five threw plasma grenades towards the brutes and grunts. It killed any brute, and grunt in its way. After the ten seconds there were now 4 brutes, 7 grunts, and 2 Jackals. James ducked out of cover and fired on the jackals, joined by the others.

"Security has gone crazy, more covenant is moving to yours position." Alcatraz said. James didn't answer, he fired on the jackals and motioned for the other 5 to move up, they did so and James got behind cover beside them.

"Alright, go for the grunts, and then the brutes… then we corner the jackals and try out luck." He said, they obeyed and started shooting the grunts. James did the same using his pistol to get two headshots, a red brute fired towards him James avoided firing his plasma rifle towards it. The alien's shielding broke and it quickly started rushing towards him. Evans fired on the brute, while Kyle finished off the grunts. All that was left was three brutes and two jackals… with the option of re-inforcements. The brutes got behind cover, mimicking their moves, The elites were quick to get closer. Nothing happened, James fired towards them, not a peep… this was unnerving.

"Evans, Deely… move up, try and get a look at them." He said. they quickly headed up, while the elites fired on the jackals, killing one of them. Deely looked over the brute's cover.

"They're gone!" James froze.

"They have cloaking units… spread out!" James yelled. The last jackal died. James quickly activated his VISR, knowing there is always a distortion in the cloaking. The VISR didn't pick it up.

_Shit… they must have escaped for re-enforcements._

James saw the door they entered through close, seeing a slight distortion. Evans looked to him.

"I don't got anything on my motion tracker… they gone?" He asked, James turned.

"I dunno… damn." He looked away, towards the door leading to the bridge.

"Alcatraz, are they gone?" he asked.

"I'm checking the room… you lost them, they disabled their cloaking and are now informing more brutes." The AI responded.

"Fuck…" James sighed,

_When in the hell did Covenant Brutes ever back out of a fight?_

He then looked to them.

"They're regrouping outside the room…" Kyle looked to him.

"Terrific." Everyone got out of cover.

"What do we do then?" Deely asked. James looked down, not knowing the answer.

"How packed is the bridge?" he asked Alcatraz.

"Checking… not very packed, just some grunt engineers, two brutes… should be simple… and… interesting."

"What now?" James asked.

"There's some Engineers in there, could fix and upgrade your suit, maybe be used to give us time… the reinforcements are massive, but the bridge, is small and secluded… go in." Alcatraz said. James looked to the marines and elites.

"We take the bridge, that'll give us control of the doors… because frankly I don't see us having a good chance fighting Covenant that's coming specifically for us." He said. The Marines did not respond and quickly headed to the door, James got there and passed through. They were now in a small hallway. The door closed behind them.

"Can you keep it closed?" He asked Alcatraz.

"Hm… Yes, I think I can… that was close, but there are other ways to the bridge, this is the most direct route." He said. Evans looked at him.

"Who are you talking to?" James froze, he couldn't divulge this information of why he's here, they'd might want to capture him… or worse think he's crazy. James shook his head.

"Nobody… I talk to myself a lot." He said. Evans stared and then turned away. This was bad, the group, atleast part of them was starting to have doubts about him. James looked to them.

"Okay, I can keep the door closed but there are other ways to the bridge… so stay on your toes." The men acknowledged him, while the elites stared at him.

_I'll take that as a yes sir…_

They headed through the hallway into the bridge.

ROMEO

7 HOURS 40 MINUTES

Kojo Agu held the sniper rifle firmly in his hands. Buck was giving orders.

"Alright, let's try and scout out this building, I bet Rookie would have tried to come here, seeing as it's the most important looking landmark here." He said. They were approaching what looked to be a tower. Romeo sighed. His CO turned towards him.

"Something to add?" He asked. Romeo sighed, as the rain poured on around them.

"I… never mind." He said, staring towards the building. The rain continually dripped around them.

_Let's just get in… I'm freezing out here._

"Now Dutch, I want you to watch the COM channels from Puzzler, we'll need to contact them when we have him… Mickey, use your rockets sparingly… Victor, you and Romeo watch each other's backs, you two are our best shots. Judging from the lack of light in the last building we were in, I would expect this place to have low visibility, so keep your VISR's on." He ordered, the group acknowledged and approached the building, the outside was empty, and it looked to be a simple door going into the building, Buck approached it and noticed that it… had a knob.

"I guess the fore runners were more… practical." Romeo found himself saying, Buck twisted it and the door opened. They immediately entered a large room, which was styled like a hotel lobby, except it was gray and desolate. Nearby there weren't any covenant luckily, they were probably on higher floors. Romeo activated his VISR to get a better look; the edges of individual objects were highlighted in yellow, while his squad was in green. He studied the area, and then looked to something.

"Stairs are over there." He pointed, the group quickly hurried to the stairs, Buck pointed his rifle up them and looked.

"Hm… stairs are clear, proceed." The marines quickly walked up them, Romeo hoped there'd be an elevator at some point. Victor was behind him focusing on the stairs downwards.

"Think we'll be followed?" Romeo sighed.

"Maybe… this place screams something's wrong." They reached the top of the stairs, they were now on the next story of the building. They looked to be in a hall with doors leading into rooms, there were ten doors on each side. Buck sighed.

"Boys, take your pick, look through them… I don't trust this." Romeo nodded and approached one of the doors on the right, he walked through, and saw that it was even darker in the rooms. He walked through the room, it was generally empty, with a strange metal slab on the floor.

"Some kind of bed?" He found himself asking, the lighting was very dark, even at night, he could tell something was in the room. He quickly turned around, swearing he heard something, nothing, he stepped near the 'bed' and putted his hand over it, his the metal was cold, but it also felt intricate, a blind man would find more to enjoy from this… but he pretty much was blind. The room due to the lighting was in three colors, Black, Grayish Black, and dark black, the Slab was somewhat gray. He activated his COM and messaged Dutch.

"Hey, I'm getting spooked out in here, you find anything?"

"No, just an empty room."

"I see…" Romeo stepped backwards and immediately was pushed onto the slab by some sort of brute force, he pointed his pistol towards the intruder. His back on the slab, immediately the room lit up, his breathing went heavy, and he looked at the intruder… It wore red armor, with a strange marking on its chest, it was about twice his size, and in its right and it held a… energy sword. Romeo breathed in at the second, feeling it hard to release the air, he then breathed out in realization of what it was. The alien looked down at him, and de-powered the energy sword.

"Human… what brought you here?" the alien asked, staring at Romeo then offering his hand. It was an elite, former member of the covenant.

"Son of a bitch…" Romeo found himself saying, he didn't take its hand, instead getting up. He looked away, the alien stared towards him, then stepped away. After a moment the alien began, turning towards Romeo.

"My team's scattered around this building, call yours here." He said. Romeo slowly nodded, activating his COM.

_This day just keeps getting weirder and weirder_

FAIRE

8 HOURS

I stepped off of the Pelican, it landed but we kept it ready for any attacks. I had a loaded pistol holstered to my left side. My thumb danced around the safety. Tom Kingsly looked to me. I slowly stopped.

"Alright, we need to find new batteries, and maybe some extra ammo for the chain-gun." I nodded.

"Fine, I'll look around here." I pointed my left hand around a couple fallen Pelicans, this defiantly looked like a sort of dump, there was both UNSC and Covenant weaponry. Part of me wanted to return to the pelican and re-attach the electronic arm, but that same part also knew that without the morphine I'd be screaming. So I held onto my pistol in case something happens. Kingsly had already jumped into some other old Pelicans, the older ones I could tell were pelicans that the covenant was inspecting for passwords, stuff from Reach and Earth when they had the chance, now it's just makes unneeded space on their cruisers. Thank god we had the Cole Protocol activate automatically when they're shot down. I was under the wing of one of the ruined pelicans. I felt the rain ridden air flush around me when I looked to see a pelican flying away from two banshees, fighting was going on in the city, Cox had ordered us to keep fighting. My mind returned to the pelican wing.

"Hm, this one was scarred badly, but I think this'll work as a new cover up for the batteries… what else do we need?" I asked. I got out from under the pelican and looked among the covenant tech to find a half broken energy blade, I used it to start removing the cover. This place made me think of a graveyard, like where my parents would be laid if they had remains…

"Hm, batteries, ammo… also two new thruster modules, our current two weren't installed properly… and so they burned out." I finally removed the cover and saw it hit the ground hard.

"I see, were they installed on the SAY-MY-NAME?"

"Yeah… I was too busy taking a piss to oversee it… This whole place just freaks me out."

"I know… These must have been on their ships before they got here, and now that they're done looking for codes, they're just dumping them… like some kind of forerunner sanctioned dump." I said back to him, I heard a thud from his side; I looked to see a removed thruster module.

"Good thing they had no interest in tearing them apart, just code scavenging." He said. I picked up the cover and started dragging it towards him. He stared for a moment.

"Hm… me being utterly weak, and you being… crippled, this is a big job." He sighed, while picking up the thruster module, I winced at that comment. Crippled? I considered myself handi-capable… well no I was crippled.

"Yeah, we'll just have to try and be quick, any updates from Buck?" I asked, changing the subject. The middle aged pilot put his hand to the green pilot helmet he wore.

"Hm… none, but they're alive, I'll tell you that much." He said, I nodded.

"Well aren't you a gentleman…" I then looked at the items we got.

"Well, if you know so much about these things, why don't you go install the thruster and coverup while I go find batteries?" He looked down and groaned.

"Fine… but remember the type we're looking for, rechargeable D proton batteries, not store brand triple Cs." He said.

"Yeah… okay Tom." I responded heading back to the wreckage. I returned to the prior pelican, the cover was alright, but the batteries on the side were burnt out from the plasma. I headed to the other side.

_Did I just call him Tom? _

I studied the other side, it looked very much intact, I carefully sliced the cover off to reveal the batteries we were looking for.

"Good news, I found a pair, we'll need another set and then it'll just be that module." I said. I heard no reply, The batteries were slightly large, about the size of a large cup, each weighing maybe 5 pounds, I pocketed them into my UNSC backpack… that seemed like a weird thing to call it, but it works.

"Hey? You there?" I asked. I walked around to the other side of the wreckage and then quickly gasped, crouching for cover. Covenant jackals were inspecting the area. Damn they must have seen the active pelican and came to take a look. I heard my COM unit start.

"You see them? I doubt we can take them here, but if we get to the pelican's turret, we'll have a good chance." Kinsgly spoke through the COM. I sighed, and then pulled out my pistol.

"I'll make a distraction, you get to the turret." I said. The pilot didn't object, I could see him on an adjacent pelican. There were maybe 6 jackals, each wielding a Covenant Carbine. Tom messaged back.

"On three… one, two, three." I immediately raised the pistol and fired towards one of them the round pierced through it's side and the jackal staggered, I had gotten slightly better one handing the pistol, however it's friends quickly fired towards me, while the first one got behind a covenant energy shield. A literal shield they used when handling plasma pistols. I crouched down behind cover, holding my pistol tightly. On the corner of my eye I saw Tom start to run, one of the jackals firing was about to turn around.

_Shit_

I ducked out of cover and fired on it, the bird fell to the ground. I could see Tom approaching the pelican. I fired again and then my clip ran out.

…fuck, why don't the engineers ever think of making crippled accessible weaponry? Okay that was low but this was a bad situation. I pulled a new clip out of one of my pockets and settled the gun down, then I removed the old clip and jammed the new one it, which fit with a nice click. I returned my attention to the Jackals edging towards me, they were tired at firing at the ship, I ducked out once more and fired on one of the two wounded ones, killing it. I could see that Tom was away and almost to the turret. The five Jackals kept firing in my direction. I immediately leaned forward and fired again, rushing too much, my aim was too bad at the moment and impacted a shield. I then heard a low hum, like an electric pencil sharpener, I looked to the turret and saw it starting up, and Tom activated the turret, finally. The gun roared and shot straight through two of the jackals. At that point, about 6 seconds in, all of them turned around and raised their shields. There were three left, I then noticed that they also had side weapons… plasma pistols, they started charging, I quickly got out of cover and fired with my pistol, singeing one's shoulder, they charged the pistols and fired towards Tom. At the moment I immediately saw a small explosion erupt from the pelican, at that point I managed to shoot the last three down. I could feel my blood rushing around me. I got out of cover and hurried to the pelican, I looked inside.

"Kingsly, you okay?" What I did find that the gun was burnt up and fallen apart. I then noticed what happened, the gun used a sort of magnetic coils technology to fire so quickly, and so shooting one with three charged plasma shots, which could disable lesser vehicles, must have caused some sort of explosion in the clips. I then noticed that the line for the clips was empty and burnt. I breathed and then looked around, he wasn't in the ship, I looked to the area of junk behind the ship to find a small trail of blood leading to a UNSC pilot on the ground. I looked to him.

"Tom… are you…" If he was dead, I wouldn't forgive myself. "Alright?" At that moment I saw a twinge of movement, he slowly nodded his head.

"Fuck." Was the only thing I heard from him. He edged forward and tried to stand.

"God… Fucking shit…" He groaned. I didn't know whether to help him up or try to find the injury, so instead I just stood there. He slowly got up and I could see that he had low degree burns around his skin and a piece of shrapnel in his side.

"Like a fucking grenade…" He edged passed me and kicked the remains of the gun.

"Piece of shit." I heard him say. I sighed.

"So you don't need help?" he didn't turn.

"I'm fine… I think, I'll just need a little medical attention or something… god damn… fucking hell." He grumbled, I could then tell how old he was, somewhere in his mid-thirties, older than me, that's for sure. However he grumbled like he was forty something. I noticed the blood trickling out of his side. I sighed.

"Okay, I'll get the med kit, patch you up a bit." He shook his head.

"What… scared about this?" he asked pointing to the injury. It was a piece of the turret's handle in lodged in his side, like what happened to Buck.

"No, I'm scared that that will get infected and then you'll try to eat me." I said calmly. He froze there for a moment.

"Good idea…" He quickly said, changing his attitude. He removed his helmet and then the chasis armor he wore as a pilot. I removed my helmet and set it down on one of the pelican chairs. I grabbed the med-kit and turned to him.

"You just took of the chassis? Even with that handle sticking out of your side?" I asked, slightly shocked. He sighed.

"Yeah… what about it?" HE said, I noticed the pain hinted in his words, he was trying to impress me, I had given him crap about his piloting.

"…Nothing." I pulled out a pair of medical pliers, I sighed.

"I'll have to pull it out, you know?" I said. he looked down, then nodded.

"Fine." I looked around for something to have him bite on, and found nothing, I sighed and pulled out my metal arm, it was sitting in a bag. I found that the hand itself was made out of extremely hard materials. I slowly reinserted the arm into my stump, feeling a quick twinge of pain and breathed deeply, it passed. I offered the "hand" to Tom.

"What?" HE asked, confused.

"Bite down on it, only thing we have that won't make you sick." I groaned. He eyed me and then slowly putted his teeth over the right side of the arm itself. I moved my arm a little, he was gripped hard, my left hand grabbed for the morphine I was issued (cuz I just love sharing that shit) I stabbed the needle into his neck and then released a small bit, and then I pulled it out. He eyed me but didn't respond. He had a grayish tint in his eyes, it weirded me out a little. I then grabbed the pliers.

"Ready for this?" I asked. He stared at me and looked nervous. I slowly putted the plier on the handle and it clamped down. He closed his eyes… it was kinda like a dog I had, he had a large tick, we spent an hour trying to pull it off, he thought that if we did he'd die. I tugged slightly on the handle and then pulled. I heard a moan erupt from him as I ripped the handle out, and dropped it on the seat beside him. And by moan, I meant a cry a little girl might yell. He let go of my "arm" and breathed to himself, I looked to the handle, it looked to be about a couple millimeters in. I sighed, I dropped the handle away and setted the pliers down.

"It wasn't that bad, you big baby." He stared at me, then looked away. At that moment I realized, that I WAY over dramatized this. He started applying the medical salve himself, looking away.

"Just so you know, I fucking hate you."

BUCK

8 HOURS

This fore-runner building seemed to be like some kind of hotel, except EXTREMELY different. Eddy Buck listened to his message on his COM from Romeo.

"Guys, I just found an elite in my room, come to my position." Buck sighed, quickly acknowledging and looked around the room one more, it was like a bunch of lines intersecting, previously he had pressed a switch and so the color was blue, this architecture was interesting. Buck thought on this new information, an elite's here? Why?

Buck turned towards the door (archway) and passed through, and saw the others with Romeo and an elite in red armor with a strange mark on the middle, like the arbiter. Buck sighed and looked at the elite.

"I'm the captain of this "company" So identify yourself and tell me your situation." He said, the elite nodded.

"My name is Saren Vaylor, also known as Tengo Zeta, on this mission." The alien said. Buck nodded.

"I see, and your mission?" he asked. Saren looked away, then towards him.

"We were ordered by one of your human generals to search out this place, and reach the top… it was a message given to our superior, Rtas 'Va-"

" 'Vadum, yeah, I know." Buck said, he then sighed.

_Just told to scout out? This place must be really important… That or he's hiding something._

The Elite then continued.

"We entered the structure and decided to spread out, and search the rooms, we lost contact… I believe because of some… covenant, but also there's flood within these walls … far deeper in." He said. Buck slowly nodded.

"I see… well we're here to 'inspect the area' and have orders to-" The elite laughed for a short moment, Buck noticed Romeo's hand tense up. Dutch seemed just to be watching this unfold, victor and Mickey did the same… but Romeo never did like elites… at all. The elite continued.

"Human, if you wish to work together, then you must tell me what your mission is, not dribble over 'inspection'." The elite stated. Buck sighed and then nodded. Romeo stared at him.

_Cheeky bastard_

"Fine, alright… we were here… searching for a lost UNSC soldier, Lance Corporal Dante, that's all I'll tell yo-"

"Dante? I've met this soldier." Buck froze.

"What?" The alien looked at him.

"He proved to me, your kind… wasn't ALL bad." He said. Buck nodded.

"When did you see him?"

"…4 hours ago, he saved me from Covenant forces… then I was assigned the mission and came here…" He said. Buck nodded.

_Around the time he was ordered to be hunt down._

"Okay… we'll help you find your lost team here, do you have any helpful intel?" He asked. Saren looked away.

"This structure is styled like some kind of training camp, most of the rooms are built for comfort and to take many brutes and unngoy… there are 17 floors, connected by stairs, but also a lift. That lift leads to the 16th floor, the covenant isn't very many among these lower floors, but reach the fifth, you'll make contact." The elite finished. Buck nodded.

"That's a lot of floors… we'll see what we can do, but we can't make promises to find your team." He said. The elite nodded.

"I know… if they were captured, they'd be dead by now… and that's no use to me." Mickey looked to him.

"What, covenant execution?" The elite turned his head.

"No… suicide." Whatever light air that was in the room vanished, the situation quickly got serious. Buck nodded.

"Very well… let's head up a floor." They were only on the second, the company began towards the stairs, if they were going to find Rookie, this going to be the place.

ROOKIE

8 HOURS 30 MINUTES

They were on the bridge now, they had taken out the bridge crew without any casualties. James approached the deck, he putted his hand on the panel.

"There, should that be it?"

"…Very good, with access to this port I now have almost full control of the ship." Alcatraz answered. James breathed for a moment and then said.

"Almost?"

"This covenant AI I worked around before is on to me, I'll have it dealt with soon enough." Alcatraz repeated. James breathed. He looked to the other soldiers.

"See the other doors? Stay by them, don't know what might try to breach in." He said, breathing. The soldiers acknowledged. Evans and Deely paired up on a door while Kyle looked onto another alone, the other two elites went solo as well. James sighed.

"Alright, how long do we have?"

"…Maybe, five minutes, they're trying to get around the new locking mechanisms I installed." James nodded. The room was a fairly spacious area; large windows into space were spread out, using a strange type of glass. He could see clouds down over the ARK. It was raining. James sighed for a moment and putted his hand to his pocket to feel for a certain bump, only to realize the reason why it's not being felt.

_Anne… fuck_

His train of thought ended when Alcatraz continued.

"So, I would recommend you see those engineers, if they are anything like the ARK's, they'll repair your armor." James didn't respond, only walked towards the three aliens near the corner of the bridge, the other troopers turned to look at him strangely, he motioned them to turn around.

"It's nothing; I just need to get something taken care of." They slowly turned back to their respective doors. The engineers proceeded to him and started circling him like some kind of intricate dance. He immediately felt them start to tinker with the armor on his back, he still felt slightly sore, but it was manageable now. He felt a slab of metal and rubber being removed and then slowly reinserted, it was… different.

"What are they doing now?" He asked into the helmet.

"Observing your armor, it'd be best to get them out of the picture when you're done with this… your Cole protocol and all." James sighed, remembering that doctrine, it came from Admiral Cole in an attempt to keep the covenant from ever finding earth… that didn't last however. The engineers finished and went back to their corner. James's hand went to his back where he felt that knife mark in the armor was gone. He sighed in relief. HE then realized they were exactly where they needed to be.

"Alcatraz… what's the plan?" he found himself asking.

"Plan… Why that's simple, I think. This ship is equipped to handle glassing runs, while that may be bad for the covenant, it'll help us. I'll use this ship for a glassing run over some troopers, or perhaps another cruiser. I can create a copy of myself with my most basic functions, to herald the ship, and control it, then at the proper drop off point we will all get off and approach the tower together." James slowly responded.

"That's a sound plan… but a copy? I read reports of a unsc AI using that same plan and the copy kept making copies because it couldn't work around things like the mother program could."

"You are right… a copy may slow me down, and I intend to try and keep this ship… that's why instead I'll leave a piece of myself here." James slowly nodded.

"You've already made, two fractions already… and that copy in the room you were in."

"Yes I am aware… but it will be fine, I'll make sure of it." Alcatraz said. He seemed to talk a lot more smoothly then when James first acquired him eight hours ago.

"All right… if you're sure."

"And besides… when this is all over, and Atlas is no more, I can recombine and be complete… this is a short term solution… though not ideal." Alcatraz said. James nodded.

"So when will you do it?"

"When we reach our destination, we'll take a banshee down to the tower, that's when I'll splinter it off."

"Okay… what do we do after the tower?"

Hm… I am unsure." James didn't reply, he heard an explosion from one side of the door, he fired towards the door then got behind cover, and the others were quick to repel the attack.

"I already started moving the ship; I would recommend you six start heading for the dock." James acknowledged. He looked to them.

"Alright, we need to head to the dock, the ship is going for a glassing run, and I've got somewhere I need to be." He said. They stared at him. The covenant was fought off. Deely walked towards him.

"You saved our lives… we appreciate that… but we don't like being left in the dark… tell us what's going on." The Private said, Evans merely watched him. James thought for a moment, and then sighed.

_Time for the truth_

"I'm working with a fore-runner Artificial intelligence, in order to help it take control of this… "Facility", I need to get it into that tower, so we commandeered this cruiser… in hopes to get close enough to the tower... I needed you, in order to get here, and now that I'm here, in order to finish the job, I need to get to the docking bay, and fly down to the tower." HE said, they stared at him for about thirty seconds. It seemed unbelievable, a soldier with an AI unit with no support, going around the mother-fucking ARK. The team didn't reply, nearly nodded, and started going towards the direction of the Dock. James was the last to leave the room, looking back towards the monitor; it was a deep blue, with a circle in the middle.

He looked away, back towards the doorway. The soldiers seemed to just absorb this information, maybe they didn't really care. Hopefully that wouldn't bite him in the back later.

Ten minutes later…

James and the group came upon the hangar. The group entered the large space, James looked to the side to see the banshee he used to get on the ship. It looked beaten.

_Can't use that…_

Evans looked around and saw a docked dropship.

"Think that'll work?" he asked, James nodded.

"It should…" the six started walking towards the dropship, and go in through the grav lift. Inside were dead brutes and grunts… must have been sucked by the airlock when the ship was open. HE talked into his helmet.

"Alcatraz, get this thing started…" immediately the lines of the craft were changed from purple to dark blue, Deely immediately twitched from the new visuals, James motioned him.

"Don't worry… he does that… when we get there… just drop me off, Alcatraz will get you where you want to go…" he said. The ship started moving and rotated around and through the hangar bay, this reminded James of New Mombasa. He looked at the cruiser as it started to lower down when the ship left, starting for a glassing run. He heard Alcatraz say something.

"That me is controlling this ship, he'll be fine… and I think he got the message…" the dropship headed towards the large fore-runner tower, he watched as the cruiser started its glassing run over part of the city. This should be able to handle a good fraction of covenant and flood… the dropship started for the tower, as the rain impact the partly burning city. James looked towards the tower, the reason he came to this town.


End file.
